Senator Burns Cracks a Latino Joke...So What?

Comments Haunt Another Senator
Montana's Burns Joked About Latinos

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 23, 2006; Page A04

In a moment of unusual candor for a veteran senator fighting for his political life, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) offered this blunt self-assessment a few months ago: "I can self-destruct in one sentence," he told supporters. "Sometimes in one word."

It seems Burns has spent a good part of the summer testing his theory.

A new video released this week by his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, shows Burns, 71, joking to a crowd in June about how a "nice little Guatemalan man" fixing up his house might be an illegal immigrant. "Could I see your green card?" Burns tells the crowd he asked the man. "And Hugo, says, 'No.' I said, 'Oh, gosh.' "

A Burns spokesman said the senator never really doubted the legal status of the handyman, Hugo Reyes. But it wasn't the only time Burns -- a critic of illegal immigration -- has poked fun at the immigrants doing work around his house.

One week after the green-card crack, Burns recounted in a debate how after watching an interview on television of an illegal immigrant headed to Virginia for work, "I told my roofer, you better go out and get your help, or you won't get my house roofed."

Ho-hum, yes, yes, Jim another politically incorrect moment. Who cares? What ever happened to the childhood proverb, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?" It's obvious that Liberals like Mr. VandeHei either never learned it, or have forgotten it (either intentionally or unintentionally). Personally, I DON'T CARE! and neither should you.

The fact that someone cracks an insensitive joke on occasion doesn't concern me. I am tired of worrying if someone is going to call me a "racist" or "bigot" simply because I refuse to bow to those who seem to believe that their way is the only way to act, talk, think, and behave. Ethnic jokes are funny, some of them are hysterical. I don't care what group they are about if there's humor, I will laugh and I refuse to feel guilty.

I am too tired of people who spend their entire lives trying to be offended. I call them professional victims. They live their pitiful lives listening to every word spoken in public hoping to here some utterance that will allow the to express their outrage. If you spend your entire life looking for an excuse to be offended, you will certainly find it. So I repeat, I DON'T CARE!

If you are treated badly by someone there may or may not be cause for feeling outraged, depending on the situation. If you are being specifically singled out for unfair treatment, then you have reason for greivance, but just being laughed at or made fun of is neither a crime, nor is it unusual. If your feelings get hurt, well tough, get over it.

I have never met a self-righteous Liberal who didn't have a secret "bigot" or "racist" hidden away inside just waiting to jump out; especially when they think no one is there to see it. It's human nature, more than that, it's nature. Prejudice against others not like you is a defense mechanism. It is as natural as breathing and eating. As humans, we have imposed a thin veneer of civilization over those feelings which enables us to interact with each other without using our clubs and spears, but the feelings remain and anyone who denies them is lying to himself. So, if on occasion some of that slips out, it is only human.

It is time for Americans to grow up and quit taking offense or trying to take political advantage of every statement an individual makes. In the end none of us are guilt-free, much as most Liberals would have us think otherwise of them.

Full Story: To the Left: Stop Whining (and Lying)

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