A Rose by Any Other Name...

It's been a while, and I'm sorry for that. I've been spending a lot of time at my other blog and have also been really sick this week...allergies, I'm thinking. Maybe I'm allergic to weight loss. I always seem to get sick right around the time I want to diet...
ANYWAY...That's not what I came on here about. Something happened yesterday that really caught my attention. As some of you may know, our Madison basketball team are now state champs! Yay! (Not that I really pay much attention to our sports anymore, sadly) At work, we have a sign out front that we change for birthdays, community events, animal-related memos, and all the like. So Tuesday, one of the doctors wanted me to put out on the sign:
"Congrats MCHS Mens BBall
State Champs"
So I put it out there...just like that. Believe it or not, we actually got a call about it! Now, this doesn't always surprise us, because a lot of our clients who drive by and see the sign will call and ask about something it says or make a comment on it or something. This call was...well...ridiculous! The caller made a complaint, saying that it should be "boys" and not "men." Are you serious?!?!?! He went on to explain that "men" is for college. Well, last I checked, once you hit 18 you are considered a "man." Heck, usually once you hit puberty, you are a "man."
Why are we so obsessed about the "proper" titles and labels we put on things? We all know what we mean, so why does it have to be just the right word? For instance...and please, please, PLEASE do not ever think I am racist or prejudice or any of the like, because I'm not...Back in high school, I had a group project in Government class. Each group had to pick a Supreme Justice and do a report on him or her, which was then read aloud in front of class. My group had Clarence Thomas who, as some of you may know (I say some because believe it or not, many Americans don't know) is the second "African-American" Supreme Justice. When I got to mentioning that point in our essay, I didn't say "African-American," I said "black." I can't begin to tell you my embarrassment as the entire WHITE class shouted at me, "African-American!"
Why should that matter? We ("we" being white folk) don't care if we're called white. No idiot (except those on major tests you take in school) asks us if we're "caucasian." As my father says, "There is no such thing as a hyphenated American." If you're American, no one usually asks about your origin. Otherwise I would be a German-Polish-Irish-English-tiniest bit French-maybe some Scottish-American (I did ancestry.com!). Otherwise, as I like to call it, a European Mutt...and proud of it!
We put so many labels on things...and obviously people. Why not call it what it is? The guys don't care if they're called "men" or "boys," though, I'm sure some of the ones with the bigger egos (aka most of the school populace) would prefer men. We obsess over the little, insignificant things in life. And people wonder why we're under so much stress...