First a disclaimer. I grew up in Taos New Mexico near the Pueblo, went to public school with the Navajo people of that area for eight years. And I am a blood descendent of the Northern Blackfoot Nation. Just some personal background before tell my tale about how I was attacked for using the term "Off The Reservation" UPDATE I AM NEVER USING THIS TERM IN ANY CONTEXT AND NO ONE SHOULD!
My mother used to use this term a lot in reference to Native Americans that she knew personally that lived on reservations and moved away because they were fed up with tribal politics and wanted out. I always admired those off the reservation types as freethinkers and rebels with a cause. I also was a big fan of Mark Twain as a youngster and he used the term in his books and essays all the time. Most likely where I learned to use the term as someone that has gone a little crazy. Like todays whole Republican party.
Anyway, I used this term in a KOS diary post yesterday. See below.
"I am a straight up liberal when it comes to my personal politics. Most of my friends and family are like minded. However, I have several friends that are completely off the reservation right wingers. If any of you KOS people read this please send me some tactics and pointers to expose some truth to these above mentioned friends and family. They attack me all the time for my political ideology and I have until today just ignored them. I want to start firing back. But firing back with constructive non-combative seeds of wisdom that have a half a chance of flourishing in their minds.
Here is an example I received from a friend who thinks Obamacare is the end of the world and is upset that I support it and want it to succeed.
"
Consider this: The principle that the legal authority to regulate X implies the authority to regulate anything that can affect X is a huge and dangerous leap of logic in a world where all sorts of things have some effect on all sorts of other things.
As an example, take a law that liberals, conservatives, and everybody else would agree is valid — namely, that cars have to stop at red lights. Local governments certainly have the right to pass such laws and to punish those who disobey them. No doubt people who are tired or drowsy are more likely to run through a red light than people who are rested and alert. But does that mean that local governments should have the power to order people when to go to bed and when to get up, because their tiredness can have an effect on the likelihood of their driving through a red light?
The power to regulate indirect effects is not a slippery slope. It is the disastrous loss of freedom that lies at the bottom of a slippery slope.
You say that you're fully aware of what's coming down the pipe. I doubt any of us are aware of the full impact of this disastrous plan, a plan I did not chose and a plan I'm fully against."
Any takers on how to answer this in a constructive way?
Have a great evening all... And THANKS for any help you provide."
Anyway this very uptight character attacked me as being racist, having no credibility as a liberal in his book, that moderators were going to kick me out of KOS diary for writing that and also wrote I needed to go educate myself. As you can see above I was only reaching out for some advice from this community. And I got some great strategies from many of you that I am very grateful for. Thank You.
My question to you all today is was I really that far out of line? Is this a term that needs to be abolished and ranks right up there with vulgar racial slurs used in the streets? Really... do we need to be "politically correct" all the time? Am a bad person for free flowing in my writing for this forum and need to be more careful how i use this english language? I am a man of peace serving and love at the core and open minded to any constructive criticism. I was looking for some answers not to be attacked. What do you guys think?