Sierra Club Succumbs to Political Correctness

I’m a tree-hugger. I have been for as long as I can remember, which is well before the term was coined. I wasn’t taught to like trees, I just always saw them as something special and something that should be protected. So when I first became aware of the Sierra Club, I joined, naively thinking its primary mission was to protect trees, wildlife and undisturbed areas of our country. That notion was quickly shattered when the organization’s missives took on the tone of a liberal manifesto. “Sign the petition! Fight big oil! Fight big coal!”

No doubt, the world would be much better off if cleaner forms of energy were more widely utilized, but Sierra Club communications were devoid of any practical suggestions for effecting an intelligent, economically viable transition. Rather, in the absence of any suggestions, it appeared the Sierra Club solution was to shut down any electric powerplant fueled by coal, oil or natural gas and have us turn off our lights, park our cars, close manufacturing facilities, and wait for the day when solar panels and wind turbines rule the world of power generation.

But I digress. My inspiration for writing about the Sierra Club arose from an e-mail I recently received from Michael Brune, the club’s executive director. Mr. Brune’s e-mail is a defining example of a core problem facing our country- the full court press of the absurdity known as political correctness. Entitled “Orlando”, the missive expressed love, support and compassion, “to all those who have lost loved ones and to those who survived”, but Mr. Brune subsequently went on to say, “some public officials and some in the media will use this moment to isolate and blame the Muslim community. We reject Islamophobia and instead we choose to stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere.”

After a statement like that, congratulations are in order– Mr. Brune wins this week’s Absurdity Award. In his rush to embrace political correctness with a crushing bear hug, he has issued a de facto endorsement of ISIS, Islamic extremists, and the imams who spout hate for life as we know it in these United States; he wishes to stand in solidarity with, “our Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere” (emphasis added).

Certainly, condemning all Muslims for the actions of a specific group is as absurd as issuing a statement that implies solidarity with the perpetrators of acts against humanity. But it is no more absurd than willingly ignoring that the Orlando shooter was not the first, nor will he be the last agent of death to commit his murderous acts in the name of Islam.

And therein lies one of the many fallacies of political correctness which people like Mr. Brune don’t merely ignore, but champion- willful blindness to reality. The reality of the Orlando atrocity is that the executioner was an avowed Muslim; it’s also a reality that several million Muslims did not and would never participate in such an atrocity. Yet according to Mr. Brune’s e-mail, it is Sierra Club policy that its members “stand in solidarity” with Muslims everywhere, extremist or otherwise.

Obviously, no one capable or intelligent thought believes the Sierra Club supports ISIS or any similar group. Equally obvious is that Sierra Club management apparently believes no crisis should be wasted and that atrocities like the one in Orlando should be seized as opportunities to promote its liberal political agenda.

In his rush to communicate his dedication to political correctness, Mr. Brune appears to have been all too eager to use a heinous act perpetrated against the LBGT community as a platform for his anti-Islamaphobia agenda. Over 100 people were killed or wounded in the Orlando attack. The entirety of his message should have been focused on expressing sympathy, compassion and support for the victims and survivors of the attack. Instead, he has used a horrific event to do little more than wave the flag of political correctness.