Let’s Include Any Type That Whines Pc Be Damned Sports Nuts Generally Are Men.

Political correctness has infected Spokane’s City Hall.

A bronze statue that is supposed to represent Everyfan at Joe Albi Stadium has Mayor Jack Geraghty and Councilwoman Roberta Greene fuming because, alas, “Joe Fan” is a man - without a Joanne. Griped Geraghty, looking sensitive for news cameras: “It either ought to be a man and a woman or kids, or something. It seems like we’re going back in time here.”

Actually, Spokane’s odd couple is suffering tunnel vision as it bows to the god of PC. By lobbying for inclusion of a female or a family, the two are stiffing some other usual suspects.

Why should we only add “a woman or kids, or something”? After all, today’s nuclear family no longer tracks with the ‘50s “Leave It To Beaver” model. Why not show a pregnant single mother trying to watch one youngster on the field while a toddler squirms next to her? Or a gay or lesbian couple with confused kids in tow? Or a multiracial twosome with his, hers, ours and adopted children that reflect the colors of the rainbow?

Some, of course, still would be unhappy.

The American Association of Retired Persons would want grandma and grandpa in the stands with “Joe Fan,” too. Social services would demand a street person and maybe a battered woman, for economic and social balance. The Special Olympics would stump for statues of physically and mentally handicapped people. And on and on.

Fortunately, sculptor Vince De Felice doesn’t have the budget to accommodate this politically correct nonsense. Said he: “I pretty much got to go with the guy.” Originally, the artist chose a man because of the stadium’s namesake, Joe Albi, a Spokane lawyer who spearheaded construction of the sports complex.

He was correct in doing so.

Sports nuts generally are men. Males, from boyhood to death, suffer and rejoice with their teams all season long. Year in and year out. They buy sports cards. They scour the sports pages. They’re nagged by their wives for watching too much “Monday Night Football” and Atlanta Braves baseball. They don’t need Bill Clinton posing for a photo op to tell them who Jackie Robinson was. They can tell you who’ll be the first college quarterback drafted by an NFL team Saturday.

PC be damned. “Joe Fan” should be a man.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see “‘Woman Question’: Where is Joanne?”

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