Over break, I had the opportunity to visit a friend who attends the University of California at Berkeley. As we were out walking, we noticed a sign on the door of one of the city office buildings that read “Closed for Indigenous Peoples Day.” Apparently, the city of Berkeley has decided that Christopher Columbusí legacy was one of slavery, murder and repression, and thus a more “politically correct” holiday should be celebrated instead.

“Political correctness” is a pervasive concept today. Last semester, Villanova hosted a seminar discussing whether it is “racist” for schools to have Native American sports mascots. My alma mater, Radnor High School, has been subtley removing references to its “Raider” mascot for a couple of years out of concern for political correctness.

Last week, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was among a group of investors bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams football franchise. Liberal groups immediately targeted Limbaugh and sought to derail his bid by accusing him of racism, citing alleged Limbaugh quotes they determined to be politically incorrect.

Many of the lines were complete fabrications, and regardless of whether you agree with him, it is clear that Limbaugh was unfairly slandered because of his politics.

Among the lines Limbaugh actually did say that his detractors decried as “racist” was a comment he made speculating that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback

Donovan McNabb is “overrated” because the sports world so badly desires a successful black quarterback in football.

I’m not sure whether Limbaugh is a racist, but as a native Philadelphian, I must certainly agree that McNabb is overrated as a quarterback, no matter what his race may be.

Regardless, Limbaugh was deemed too politically incorrect to buy a slight ownership share in a football franchise, and the group of investors removed him from its bid.

But political correctness is a funny thing. Also last week, a video tape emerged of White House Communications Director Anita Dunn praising and quoting Chinese communist dictator Mao Tse-tung as one of her “favorite political philosophers” in a speech to high school students.

In case anyone has forgotten Mao, hereís a quick recap: he was probably the greatest mass murderer in human history, killing several times more people than Adolf Hitler. For a senior adviser to the president of the United States to praise Mao to a group of students is frankly insane.

Remarkably, though, Dunn’s status as one of Obama’s closest advisers appears to be unchanged. In fact, last week she scathingly denounced Fox News as an ideological enemy of the White House as other liberals in the Obama White House derided Fox as a merely illegitimate news source.

Of course, Obama is no stranger to radicals. Former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones was committed to a San Francisco Marxist group. Obama’s Safe Schools Czar is a radical homosexual activist who has written books on “queering” elementary education. And, of course, Obama’s association with radical left-wing terrorist Bill Ayers and anti-American black-nationalist Jeremiah Wright were well-documented during the election.

The same commentators and talking heads on television livid at the prospect of Rush Limbaugh investing in a football team were strangely silent on the prospect of a radical inspired by Mao working in the West Wing of the White House.

So let me see if I have this right: Rush Limbaugh,

Native American sports mascots, Fox News and Christopher Columbus are “politically incorrect,” but murderous dictators, left-wing terrorists and Marxist revolutionaries are OK. Does this make any sense?

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John Elizandro is a sophomore business major from Radnor, Pa. He can be reached at [email protected].