Red-tagging inspired by walk of the duck

Pardon me if I may sound frivolous, but the reason why nobody is tagging me as a communist is because I do not look like a communist, walk like a communist and talk like a communist. And the reason I do not look like a communist, or walk like a communist and talk like a communist is because I am not a communist.

It is really as simple as that and I do not know why some people have to really complicate things. Those who are getting red-tagged are getting red-tagged because they look like a Red, walk like a Red and talk like a Red. If they resent the red-tagging, the remedy is really quite simple and does not involve anything complicated or impossible: Stop looking, walking and talking like a Red.

We are all born with our own particular and peculiar characteristics. A dog will always look like a dog, walk like a dog and bark like a dog. If a dog looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then that dog is a duck, no matter how he protests to high heavens that he is not. It is the same with people who look like communists, walk like communists and talk like communists. A zebra cannot change its stripes by complaining.

It is interesting to note that none of those who have been tagged as communists is actually complaining about being tagged as a communist. Their real complaint is that getting tagged as communists exposes them to potential danger and harm. It is the risk to their own persons that concerns them, not their being tagged communists. They can take what's on the label but not the shaking before use.

But why the concern? Every job, calling, profession, endeavor and undertaking always involves some measure of risk. A firefighter can get burned, a sailor can drown, a lineman can get zapped and a butcher can lose a finger. But these risks come with the territory. Life is truly full of tough choices. Those who get tagged as Reds cannot act like prima donnas in their chosen fields. They cannot have their cake and keep the icing.

Aside from other means, communists employ violent means to further their ends. In the decades that the communists have tried unsuccessfully to topple the country's democratic government and its peaceful way of life, all that they have got to show for their rampage is the carnage. Countless lives, most of them innocent, have been lost, properties damaged or destroyed, and futures compromised.

And all that those who look like communists, walk like communists and talk like communists really get concerned about are their own safety? What about those who perished in the hands of those who they brazenly refuse to condemn and hold to account? What about the broken and overturned lives of those left behind by the atrocities of communist terrorists?

If the fear of getting red-tagged is so consuming, the relief comes as no great secret. Just disavow and denounce the communists. Each time there is an atrocity, an ambush, a bombing, a torching, and extorting, let those who look like communists, walk like communists and talk like communist damn these atrocities. The only way not to be called a duck is to not look, walk and talk like a duck. You might discover you are, in truth, a goat.