WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (12/5/12) - Just wanted to mention that I received a letter to the editor from Dr. James Kemp in response to my Staff Stuff from a few weeks ago. It’s printed in on another page. Please read it and then make up your own mind.

Enough of that though. Several of you have told me that you’ve enjoyed reading what I’ve been writing. Thank you so very much for the kind words. I’ve debated over and over again in my head since I started at The Journal-Enterprise what I want this article to be about and I’m still not sure.

Most of the time I just go with whatever is on my mind, and that seems to be working. If it’s not, no one has told me about it yet!

My dream was to write something incredibly funny like Dave Berry, but the truth is I’m just not that funny. At least that’s what my wife tells me. Although my two-year-old thinks I’m hilarious!

There was a time where I would have loved to be funny, but now, just making my little girl giggle is more than enough for me.

I remember when I was growing up I used to read Edd Hust’s weekly article in the paper. He was always funny and insightful. Even though sometimes I was too young to know what he was talking about, he was still entertaining.

So we’ve already established that I’m not funny, I don’t think I would classify myself as insightful either. I don’t see the secret inner truth of things.

There is one area that I excel with. Some people like it, many others do not.

I was born with a broken word filter. I am very opposed to political correctness. When it comes to my opinion I don’t pull punches. Whether it's my opinion on the school district’s treatment of the band or the outfit I saw a lady wearing at the mall, I’ll tell you what I think.

This infuriates my wife, who takes my honesty as rudeness. I think there is a difference between being honest and being rude. It is a fine line, I’ll admit, but personally I would prefer for people to know how I feel that to lie or say nothing in order to be nice.

Perhaps I cross the line from time to time, but I think the world would be a lot nicer place if we had a little more honestly and a little less political correctness. Some people might get their feelings hurt, but they would think twice the next time they started to do something.

I think the biggest problem in today’s world is that everyone filters what they say. We used to have a clearly defined right and wrong. Now right and wrong are left up to the individual. There is no social norm. Now we have to worry about hurting someone’s feelings if they know we don’t approve of something they do.

People used to have shame. If they were addicted to drugs or if they had multiple children by multiple fathers it wasn’t something to be proud of. They didn’t broadcast it for the world to know because the world would look down on them.

Today we are supposed to just smile and accept them. Furthermore, we are the ones who get shamed if we don’t accept them.

The world’s morale view has shifted somewhere to the far left and I believe it all started when people stopped speaking their mind and started worry about being politically correct.

I always joked as a kid that I wanted to grow up and be a grumpy old man. I’m not there yet, but I’m really getting started on my way!

I have to respect men like my wife’s grandfather, “Sandrock” Smith of St. Charles. From the day I met him I realized that he was a person who said exactly what was on his mind. Some people might think it’s rude, but I found it to be a breath of fresh air.

If you’re thinking it, why not just say it? If you’re worried that being rude might be a sin, aren’t you guilty of it already?

Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor

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