Months after the debate on the Warrior mascot ended, the administration has continued their propaganda campaign to convince the Marquette community that the return of any Warrior mascot is evil and offensive to all Native-Americans. By implication, the university is engaging in an insulting exercise of politically correct elitism in which anyone that disagrees with them should be corrected because they obviously aren't intelligent enough to know what they should find offensive.

"Making the separation between old Warriors and new Warriors might be easy for many of us, but not for Native Americans who will forever be wounded at every utterance of Marquette Warriors," said Rana Altenburg, Marquette vice president for public affairs, was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Gop3.com.

Altenburg's statement makes it plain that the administration will use every opportunity to push their narrow view wherever possible. Indeed, the theme for Marquette's American Indian Celebration, "A Time for Healing," implies that the vast majority of the Native American community was deeply aggrieved by the mere mention of a possible return to a Warrior mascot. Of course, the reality of Native American opinion on the matter was far from the mass indignation that the administration would have the Marquette community believe. As was demonstrated by the university's own survey evidence, actual Native American opposition to a return to a generic Warrior mascot was in the extreme minority. In the absence of an outraged Native American community, the administration has made the highly shameful choice of manufacturing an atmosphere more conducive to their viewpoint.

The Warrior controversy has become so much more than the fight over a mascot. It is symptomatic of a widespread epidemic of political correctness for the sake of political correctness. It is well known that the impetus behind the name change was the negative perception of the Warriors as offensive toward Native Americans. This may be the case, and indeed, Willy Wampum was offensive to many, however, a new Warrior mascot need not be a caricature of Native Americans at all.

Political correctness strives to offend no one. Unfortunately for the PC thugs, it is impossible to please everyone; indeed it is a slippery slope from which no one will emerge satisfied. To continue to follow the dogma of extreme political correctness merely for the sake of being politically correct is a flawed, misguided and stupid enterprise. A fine example of the sheer lunacy of the present course of political correctness has been the NCAA's effort to ban schools with Native-American mascots from tournament play. The NCAA originally included Florida State in its edict, despite the fact that the Seminole tribe of Florida had openly embraced FSU's mascot. Perhaps the administration and the NCAA should berate the Seminoles for not knowing when they should be offended.

Protests, petitions and reasoned debate have characterized the Marquette community's struggle to bring back the Warrior. In response, the administration has nothing to offer but an elitist attitude that the Marquette community is not intelligent enough to make its own decisions as to what is and isn't offensive.