Why, I would ask, when we grew up with the notion of being adult enough to ignore the petty troubles in life, are we an in age of greater sensitivity about derogatory ethnic terms?

Yes, the word ni**er is particularly troubling because it was associated with murder in the – might I add – democratic south. But as children we were also told to remember the little rhyme, “sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me.” How sensible those words sound now that we’re in an age where you’ll only be convicted of throwing sticks and stones if the sticks and stones in question are on a green list of endangered species, but calling someone a “bad name” is considered a high offense under ‘crimes against sensitivity”.

To be blunt, it’s time we all just grew the hell up and threw this stupid emotional anxiety into the waste basket along with those who expect the world to suffer under their wrath for transgressions against it and get on with the bigger picture. People are starving, their wages collected by dictorial governments which severely impact how they can raise their own children and terrorists are successfully plotting to fill our streets with the blood of the innocent. We have more important things to do than wring our hands over “greater sensitivity about derogatory ethnic terms”.

I suspect our forefathers wouldn’t know whether to laugh of be ashamed at how we have twisted into a mockery what they worked so hard and gave their lives to pass along to us because they believed in us – their future.

John McIntyre, get a life.

Part of me says that if they really wanted to take such wonderful care of their ponies, they’d make sure their stables are always up to code and not thus candidates for condemnation.

I have often wondered about the treatment of the ponies.

Since these folks rely on these ponies for their livelihood, I would guess they probably take better care of the horse than they do their children. Not that they don’t take care of their children, just a figure of speech.

But if you ask someone from PETA, who advocate that we all live on fruits and veggies, this is cruel to treat a horse like this.

Why can’t we just let the horses run free and use a truck to peddle the produce? Oh that’s right, conserve oil, prevent global warming.

I guess they should just go on welfare. /sarc

How many people ( considering this Arabber practice has been going on for years ) would have really noticed or cared about the original article’s mention of it?

What the editorial has done is called attention to a ‘potential’ hot-bed issue, and by doing so, may have the effect of someone actually complaining about it – hence – they have a news story to cover.

I see. I suppose we’re going to get Jewed out of our rights because some Mahometans take issue with these Gypsy-like Sambos; what Indian Givers these Wogs are!

Oh, wait, those are all 19th-century terms that either have their roots in pejorative terminology or have become pejorative. And looking at the etymology of “Arabber”, I can’t help but feel the same. It’s derived from a phrase that used the word “Arab” as equivalent to “vagrant”.

At the rate we’re going, we’ll soon be a mute society.

Hardly. Political Correctness is all but dead to the next generation of liberals. Forty years of John Waters and 10 seasons of South Park [not to mention the rest of the Comedy Central lineup] have pretty much ushered in it’s well-earned demise, and not a moment too soon. That doesn’t mean we won’t see it cropping up here and there, but for those of us who grew up in the tight-lipped 90s, PC is as absurd to us as it is to you.

That being said, I don’t think switching from “Arab” to “Arabber” is really that big a deal, and considering the current state of affairs in the world, “jarring” is a pretty apt description of the word “arab” in a newspaper headline.