Political correctness is an evil force that has unfortunately taken a large hold in our country.

We’ve become a people and a country who have become hyper-sensitive, and we stand idly by as our morals, values and traditions are stripped away from us.

One can look in Bowling Green and see political correctness everywhere. We’ve seen our manger scene permanently taken off the square several years ago and our Merry Christmas signage changed to Happy Holidays at Circus Square Park. We watched as one former local elected official ordered two historical stones removed from Fountain Square in the middle of the night. We watched as WKU President Timothy Caboni caved to political correctness in removing a Civil War marker from campus that simply stated a historically accurate fact that Bowling Green was the Confederate capital of Kentucky. We’ve watched as Christians and Christian beliefs are attacked and mocked.

Nationally, Aunt Jemima rebranded its syrup because there was a picture of a Black lady on it. Uncle Ben’s rice is taking the picture of a Black man off its boxes. Winn-Dixie grocery chain considered changing its name simply because it had Dixie in it. Statues of Christopher Columbus, Teddy Roosevelt and most recently the Boston Emancipation statue of Abraham Lincoln have been taken down. Cities across the country are taking down countless historical monuments out of political correctness.

It literally gets worse every year.

Where does it end?

Just days into the start of this new year, political correctness swept anew into the halls of Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., proposed eliminating gendered language from the official House rules.

Proposed changes to the rules of the House would “honor all gender identities” by eliminating such specific terms as mother and father, son and daughter and aunt and uncle. Instead, only gender-neutral terms such as “parent,” “child,” “sibling” and “parent’s sibling” would be allowed in the text of the House rules.

This is political correctness gone crazy. This proposal is blatantly anti-family and anti-gender.

So much for the unity that they’ve preached as of late.

The actions of Pelosi and her counterparts who support this asinine gender-neutral language are exactly what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called them on Twitter: “Stupid.”

McCarthy signed off his tweet with a father, son and brother.

This is not only political correctness run amok to appease a minority, it’s also a blatant attack on free speech. Members of Congress should be allowed to say whatever they want in reference to genders in the halls of Congress without being told what to say by the likes of Pelosi and company.

Freedom of speech – a gift that was granted to us by our Founding Fathers – should never be trampled on or toyed with as Pelosi and company are attempting to do.

The First Amendment affords protection even to offensive speech. It would not occur to most people that words like mother or father are in that category. Apparently it is to left-coast liberals like Pelosi.

Their attempts to do so are shameful, politically correct to the hilt and fly in the face of the First Amendment.

We hope this ill-advised proposal is voted down and voted down handily as this is not who we are or want to be as free people.