recently there was a controversy surrounding the statement by gop rep. lynn jenkins (r-kan.). she said that the gop would need to find the ‘great white hope’ to run against obama in the next election. wow…oops!

after having read about the origins of this statement…i understand that it has a racist origin. it was a poor choice of words on jenkins’ part but i have no doubt that it was an innocent mistake.

this seems to be happening more and more. i think that the political correctness of our speech is for outpacing the understanding of what is and is not inappropriate. i truly believe that many of these statements are inadvertent. such as the statement by sen. majority leader trent lott regarding strom thurmond. i have no doubt that in saying things would be better had strom been elected were nothing more than an attempt to say something nice about an old guy who wouldn’t be around much longer. i doubt that anything malicious was intended. it was an unfortunate bit of praise and it cost lott his job.

i want people to be more sensitive but we need to realize and acknowledge the fact that sometimes no ill was intended. people will learn if you explain to them the error. i bet jenkins’ will never use the phrase again without thinking first…