WHEN ISN'T IT A SPADE? 

If you have been following my newsletters, by now you will have noticed that "shy" is not my middle name. Even so, I debated with myself about the propriety of reprinting the notice below. Then I remembered John 8:32 in the New Testament of the Bible, where Jesus says, " ... and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." So if you have read this far and are already offended, stop, it won't get better for your sensibilities. Curious?  Just remember you were warned. Here goes.

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at
Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.  That year's term was Political Correctness.

The winner wrote, "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Political Correctness. When does it stop? I would never go out of my way to intentionally offend someone (well, not very often) and I feel badly if it occurs by accident but c'mon, what has happened to us that we have become so thin skinned? Once upon a time, one could call a spade a spade, now we have to put lipstick on the pig to mention it. Back when I was a kid, and you were, too, did you not chant, "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me"? That has sure changed.  And the way things are going, not only will more words be declared Non-PC, it will be acts. Eating salt and fatty foods, swallowing anything not organic, drinking soda not diet, smoking OUTSIDE for crying out loud, failing to exercise. The list grows day by day. Whose body is it? If I want guidance, I have my wife, Jiminy Cricket and my conscience whispering at me all day.

The other afternoon I was in Trader Joe's and saw a kid telling his mother he wanted her to buy the organic bananas for 10 cents more each. Never mind that MY mother would have smacked me for telling her anything, ask maybe, but tell? Anyway, this mom said, "Don't be ridiculous, we don't eat the skin", and walked off to the register with the good old Chiquita brand of regular bananas. It was a performance worth applauding and the kid had no comeback. Bravo, Mom! 

It all comes down to the erosion of our personal liberties. They are beginning to melt away like snow in a spring thaw. It won't stop by itself.

Take a stand.

We are a distributor of a wide variety of construction products. Gamka's business is in equipment sales and rentals, construction chemicals, thermal and moisture protection, diamond cutting, hardware, concrete accessories and safety equipment.  We are family run and our World Headquarters is located in Edison, NJ. Gamka's truck fleet delivers all over New Jersey, Metropolitan New York and Philadelphia. To serve our outside customers, we have field account managers who call on contractors on jobs and in their offices. Inside our 60,000 square foot building we have a 2,000 sq. ft. show room where our sales counter handles walk-in customers and telephone calls. Under roof are more than 30,000 line items. We rent over 1,400 pieces of machinery. There are 9,000 parts in stock and our service department repairs our customers' equipment and what we sell and rent. Information on all of this and much more can be found on our website, www.gamka.com . We offer our customers application-engineered solutions to their problems.  We have established ourselves in the concrete market niche and are known by our customers as the concrete experts. If you have anything to do with concrete, from placing it to restoring it and every stage in between, Gamka can help. We have the answers.

As the construction industry and our customers evolve, so do we.