Politial Correctness and Cingular

My nephew, Jeremy wrote and sent me the following piece. I'm posting it with his permission.

It's a particularly heart felt rant on the state of political correctness as it pertains to a recent Cingular commercial. Tell me, when did Tolerance mean shutting down or shouting out others. And when did we become so thin-skinned that we parade our 'offences' around like war wounds?
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I'm back on my soapbox again about the direction in which our world is heading.

I'm sure most of you have seen the hilarious commercial from Cingular that stars a man and his soon-to-be son-in-law. The company is trying to get across the disasters that can happen with dropped calls. The man tells his future son-in-law to call him Jim and to think of him as a buddy.

The son-in law then starts in on a comical scene of nick names, "Ok Jim...Jiimmy...Jimbo...". He procedes to sing the old song "Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't Care". The call is dropped and the young man freaks out thinking he has crossed a line.

The line with the song has been cut from the commercial due the few complaints of people who were "uncomfortable" with the fact that this song orginated during the african slavery in the US and was sung by a black-face minstril. Did this commercial offend the black population in the US to the point where they made phone calls and wrote letters in protest? Most likely not. No doubt because of a handfull of complaints, Cingular had to spend thousands to edit, process, and edistribute their commercial. Who pays for those thousands the company just spent? It's certainly not the CEO.

Funny commercials are few and far between these days. In fact, the main reason I watch the Super Bowl is to see all the quaility advertising companies save for this one occasion. Now there is one less quaility commercial surfing through the cable lines and satalite waves to our televisions.

Political Correctness has cost Americans their rights in more ways then one. Certain religions can no longer practice their beliefs in public. The government has gone out of their way to make everyone in schools "comfortable" in their surroundings, sacrificing simple practices, like
birthday parties on school property, so not to offend certain religions and races. The employer has to now go to great lengths in preparing to interview, evaluate, and confront employees so not to cross a line and end up in a law suit. Now it is affecting the simplest of commercial
advertising.

Is there an answer to help solve this epidemic, or is our nation so far gone that we will only be sinking deeper in the infringment of our basic freedoms?

You tell me. - J.C.