Unnecessary Censorship

What is our world coming to? It has become more and more frustrating to express oneself due to the unnecessary censorship thrust upon the many by the few.

This morning, I heard that they are re-writing/editing a popular Dire Straits song. It's already happened in most locations online ... if you try and listen to the original song you're hooped. 

Have you heard about this?

It's the song Money for Nothing and the lyric in question is a term the British use as slang for cigarettes, that Websters Dictionary defines as a "bundle of wood or sticks" and which some people use as a reference to persons of a homosexual persuasion. 

Now, I did not hear whether or not the group pushing for this ban/re-write was an activist group comprised of homosexual people that found the lyric hurtful or derogatory, but I would hazard to guess that this is not the case. 

It seems that more and more the folks that are leading the charge against re-writing history, books, songs, etc are those that feel that they should be uncomfortable to hear that word. They are the overly-sensitive, what-are-people-going-to-think-if-I-DON'T-see-something-wrong-with-this types that choose to fight the least crucial battles. 

The announcer on my radio station made an excellent point. When he was 7 years of age and playing air guitar to this song, he wasn't enjoying it because of the potential inflammatory language. He wasn't jumping off the couch with his dad's Fender because Dire Straits said the word "faggot". It didn't make him stand up and say, "This is a great song because the band is demeaning a group of people through a generally accepted but oft ill-used slang word!!!" It wasn't even a thought in his mind and still isn't. 

I would challenge anyone to recall the exact lines that use this word, 'cause though my parents were big Dire Straits fans and I have heard this tune countless times, I couldn't recall the use of that word. 

Elsie P

PS - What do you think? Is it necessary to change all songs, books, speeches and history items that use words that are considered socially unacceptable in this day and age but were, at the time of publication, generally accepted?