Federal Reserve Tells Employees Not to Use Terms Like ‘Founding Fathers’

What makes this effort so ridiculous is that advocates of bias-free language are dealing with hundreds of years of usage. It’s become part of the way we communicate. No one can change that by simply issuing “guidance,” or writing a memo or a book, and ordering the change.

King Canute would have had better luck ordering the tide not to come in.

Such speech codes are more frequently found on college campuses, where they have caused controversy, though they have become more common at government entities.

San Diego officials in 2016 had to walk back similar guidance, which instructed city employees not to use the term “Founding Fathers,” before it was scrapped.

We refer to the “Founding Fathers” because it is universally accepted that the group of colonists who gathered in Philadelphia in 1776 and created the United States out of an idea were all male. That’s not to say there weren’t females influencing the proceedings. Abigail Adams would rightly take offense at that. But at the time of America’s founding, women were condemned to a subservient public role.

The fact that it was terribly unfair doesn’t change the history of the time, no matter how woke modern sensibilities might be.

Oftentimes, advocates for eliminating bias from language simply want change for the sake of change. They are the enemies of tradition. All change is not good, just like all traditions are not good. Most people can discern where the truth lies and should be free to continue using language that is universally accepted in order to effectively communicate ideas.

Otherwise, we’re going to become the Tower of Babel on steroids.