Airplane Dialogue

I did some traveling two weeks ago for my job. When on the road, a little "game" I play to pass the time between long layovers is to see what kind of conversations I can have with strangers. Some people do it because it's natural to them, I do it precisely because it's unnatural. So, on my flight back from Denver, I had a couple of interesting conversations which I will share with all of you lucky readers.

The Lobbyist

To my left sat a lady, on her way back to Washington, D.C. and her job as a political lobbyist on Capitol Hill. One of the default topics of conversation with strangers revolves around our jobs. To help her understand more clearly what I do, I explained that I worked for a non-profit Christian organization and that my specific job was to figure out ways to ethnically diversify our membership. I then told her that I had spent the week in strategy meetings on how to do that. The conversation then made its way to topics of political correctness and the following exchange:

Lobbyist: What do you think about political correctness?

Me: I just spent a week in meetings where everybody was so conscious of "ethnicity" and so afraid to offend. Am I ethnic because I'm Asian? Isn't everybody of some ethnicity or another? Should I be asked my nationality? Doesn't that imply that I'm not "American"? It's all a bit forced.

Lobbyist: I think it's important, though. Labeling matters. One of the things I'm working on right now is animal rights legislation. Changing animal ownership laws, for example. We don't own our dogs...they are their own beings. We refer to dogs as "Canine Americans" in order to acknowledge that.

I laughed as if she just told a fine joke, until I realized that she was serious. Then I was just plain stunned. Awkwardness ensues and the conversation dies off. I come home and google the term and this is what comes up. Apparently, there is real effort being expended and real work being done to accomplish this. Wow...simply stupefying. Apart from its importance (or lack thereof) when compared to all the other issues society faces, the term "Canine American" is still not correct enough. In order to properly address my purebred Scottish Terrier, for example, I should refer to her as a Canine Scottish-American. That term acknowledges her American identity as well as her Scottish roots. Now, that would bring us all a small step closer to solving the troubles that confront us.