Major General James Dean was a U.S Army general who was captured by the Koreans in August of 1950 and held prisoner for the next 3 years. In his book, General Dean’s Story, copyright 1954, he stated, “Through all his conversations with Koreans who had chosen Communism, ran one refrain: they resented being called “gooks” and the slighting references to race and color more than they resented any of our policies.”
During the Vietnam War, “Gooks” was one of the names many Americans used when referring to the Vietnamese Communists and often times the Vietnamese in general. Words have a power to inflame others and ourselves. Everyone wants to be treated as an individual and with respect. Our nation would be better off today if certain words had never become part of our nation’s vocabulary. We do not need to use words in either our foreign or domestic policy that inflame others. That doesn’t mean we should beat around the bush, but common sense should dictate that we can get our point across without using an ethnic slur to make our point.
About 10 years before the Civil War, there was a group of men in the South who were called Fire-Eaters. These were men who engaged in a persistent advocacy of Southern independence. They worked to convince the people of the South to secede but failed to realize or mention the dangers of secession. Many Southerners agreed with these men and followed their words with actions that lead to this nation’s Civil War.
We have no idea the depth of anger, hurt and hostility that has been stirred up because of our words.
Proverbs 18:21 states that the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. James 3:6
January 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm |
Nice post.