Twitter over the recent years has become a means for people to express themselves to a wide audience and has allowed for news to reach people in a much quicker way. This efficient mechanism is not without flaws. In other words, there are negatives that come with positives with having a twitter.  In Storm Paglia’s case, twitter, was a means of expressing his distaste for Virginia legislation on illegal immigrants receiving in-state tuition. On February 13, 2015, he claimed; “The fact that the VASenate and VAHouse allow these ILLEGALS in state tuition with an easier process than if I were to apply is DISGUSTING.” These comments cost Paglia his job as the undersecretary for university dining services at George Mason University.

We must focus on the bigger picture here. This is not just about a tweet. This is about “political correctness.” I have never been a fan of the term. In fact, I call it “political incorrectness.” Being politically correct, I find it to be an excuse for blatant disregard to freedom of speech, which is what Paglia was exercising as an American. The people of this great country have become weak. Anything and everything is now deemed offensive. What Paglia said is true and apart from referring to them as these illegals, I agree with every word he said. It is truly incomprehensible how illegals receive benefits regardless of their lack of citizenship.

Unfortunately for Paglia, he is a public figure in the George Mason community and everything he does and says in a public space is monitored by the media. The media will portray anyone the way they, media, choose. In fact, the media, to me, are the real racist in today’s society. It has become more about ratings than getting REAL news out there for the people for whom they “serve.” It is about what is trending. That is what news has become over the years, trends, not news. And if you havent noticed by now, race, is a trendy topic. People love to talk about race and racism on one hand. Meanwhile, on the other hand, they claim how wrong racism is and how we should rid our society of it. How do you plan on doing so if you refuse to stop talking about it? The fact of the matter is that the media feed off of these types of stories. The media today has grown overweight with racial topics and its time for the media to start exercising because what they are doing only adds fuel to the fire

It is good for business they might say. But this cannot be about business any longer. We must focus on the big picture and change the course we are on before we lose our freedoms entirely. The more we keep talking about race, the more power we give it. We give power to racism by finding and deeming words to be offensive. We all know the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” right? As cheesy as it may be, this is how we must approach racism. This is how I have approached racism ever since coming to The United States from Colombia. Kids mocked me in school, claiming my father was a Colombian drug lord. They even went as far as saying that I was a cocaine dealer and that my entire family was as well. My feelings were never hurt, as ignorant as those statements were, because I did not care for their ignorance. Nor did I dwell on their remarks. The truth is that these words only hurt if we give them the power to do so.

For Storm Paglia, he is the latest victim to fall prey to politically correctness. I give credit to Paglia for standing by his comments. He showed true courage. The opposite goes for those who coward behind the infectious disease that is being politically correct only to make stories out of a tweet that is protected by our constitutional rights as Americans, and as human beings most of all.

–Nick Ortiz