When Clean Becomes A Dirty Word

Every time I think I've seen it all, life throws me a curve. After all, who would have guessed that the word “clean” had become a four letter word? Certainly Senator Biden didn’t. I’m quite sure he thought he was heaping high praise on Senator Obama when he used it. Unfortunately, despite his years in politics, the senior senator from Delaware made the mistake of underestimating the ability of some people to make mountains out of molehills.

He is hardly to blame for this. However he must bear the responsibility for aiding them in getting away with this kind of nonsense one more time. How? By frantically casting about to apologize to just about anyone and everyone he can, the senator has shown a complete lack of ability to deal with the unexpected. He has empowered the usual suspects in their eternal quest to make all things racial. Also he has probably eliminated any possibility of being elected President.

What would have been a proper response? Perhaps something more like this; I said clean, I meant clean. Only someone who is a lover of the worst kind of racist rhetorical nonsense could make anything racially explosive out of such a positive word. There are of course those who would have made attacks and attempts to make him look like a closet racist.

However it would have been simpler to turn these aside by asking his attackers to explain, in detail, exactly in what context the word “clean” is a pejorative. It would have been interesting to see what kind of explanation the naysayers would conjure up, if any.

Let’s be clear about this. There are those who see a slight in every expression. They could make “hello” a racist verbal attack. Let’s not yield common sense to common paranoia. There are more than a few people who have difficulty listening to the better angels of their nature, but we can choose not to be among them. When we make that choice, it’s good news.