Webloggin » The Intolerance of Political Correctness

Nazi phrase gets football coach benched
Suspended a game for posting it on players’ lockers

October 5, 2006
BY ERIC HERMAN AND TINA AKOURIS Staff Reporters

After posting a message on players’ lockers last week that was worded the same as a Nazi slogan, Maine South High School’s top football coach was suspended for a game, officials said Wednesday.

Dave Inserra, 39, will sit out Maine South’s homecoming game against New Trier this Saturday, Principal David Claypool said. The one-game suspension comes after Inserra put up signs saying, “Work will set you free,” on the lockers of the varsity team. The German version of that phrase — “Arbeit macht frei” — became infamous when used by the Nazis, who posted it at the entrance to Auschwitz and at other concentration camps.

“I regret it ever happening. It was a completely honest mistake,” Inserra said. “Ignorance is not an excuse. I should have checked the origin.”

Claypool agreed the incident was “an honest mistake.”

I’m not even sure why this is a news item in the Chicago Sun Times but it is.

I was listening to Don and Roma on WLS radio on the Internet this morning and I was amazed by a caller who thought the coach should be fired. There was no room in her mind that the coach couldn’t have known the significance of the phrase. She was adamant that the phrase is well understood and known by everybody.

But that simply isn’t true. Not everyone is a study of history and the coach didn’t use the German version of the phrase. He simply repeated a phrase he had heard in a school wide meeting. This is a genuine case of simply not knowing the historical significance of the phrase.

Inserra posts a “weekly phrase,” intended as inspiration, on the lockers of his team members, he said. Often, the phrases are quotes from famous leaders, including President Theodore Roosevelt and football coach Vince Lombardi, he said. Sometimes, he makes up his own.

Inserra heard “work will set you free” during a school-wide meeting at the beginning of the academic year, he said. The speaker who used it “was talking about teaching,” he said. And while some in attendance knew the phrase’s origin, he did not, he said.

The phrase fit well with the varsity football team’s theme for the season — “Work hard, work smart, work together,” Inserra said.

Last Thursday, Inserra posted fliers saying “Work will set you free” on the varsity team’s lockers. The next day, a colleague told him, “This could get you in trouble,” he said. He took the signs down immediately and wrote an apology to the entire teaching staff.

Claypool said Inserra did not know the historical significance of the phrase. “Dave Inserra is one of the most respected people at Maine South,” he said.

The coach acted appropriately. He removed the signs and apologized in writing. Yet the coach was still disciplined.

The intolerance of political correctness is that it applies a standard that is often beyond the scope of the community it is meant to police. There is no room for those who are unaware. It is today’s equivalent of the belt. Rather than use it as a boundary that can be used as a teaching tool it is used as a punishment to force people who walk out of bounds to comply. Whack!

Ironically enough we usually hear of this sort of “intolerance of political correctness” being applied in schools. The very people who should understand the nuances of the human psyche are the ones who discount it when it comes to putting that knowledge to use.

Perhaps we should start a new campaign to replace political correctness with common sense rules that involve a bit of thought before ascertaining guilt.

Stamp out politically correct intolerance.

political correctness