Our new president is a White Sox fan. That's a little unusual. Almost the entire region supports the Cubs. I've been to Chicago and Wrigley Field. I can vouch for the Cubbies' popularity.

Kosuke Fukudome is a current Cubs star, coming over from Japan two years ago. He has been adopted by the baseball fans in the Windy City for his aggressive style of play and hitting prowess. It would seem everyone in Chicago recognizes the right fielder's name when they see it.

Evidently, a staffer at Elgin High School outside Chicago is one of the few who doesn't. Jill Howe was accosted during school last year and ordered to change from the Fukudome jersey she was wearing because the school employee thought the shirt was obscene.

Censorship is a tricky thing. For centuries we have frowned on words that make us uncomfortable. No studies have been done to decide which words are really harmful to the children we use as an excuse to limit everyone else's freedom of speech. We just force people to purge their vocabulary of words that make us cringe.

Most of the unacceptable words refer to a body part or function, or relate to some ancient ritual involving witchcraft. Words like kill, slaughter, and stupid are never censored. Hate speech is getting more attention in today's world, but the word hate is still okay.

The biggest problem with censorship is who gets to decide what's offensive. Most of us don't want the foul- mouthed drunk guy at the baseball game to make the rules, and we probably wouldn't want the pastor of the Church of Christ at the county line in Manville, SC, to decide what acceptable speech is either.

I just found out the folks at Publix are covering offensive magazines at the checkout counters. Since not all of them are covered, it makes you wonder who is deciding what we see and how do they decide what is unacceptable?

I don't know about you but I don't want the front end manager at a grocery store to determine what is offensive in my life. Matter of fact, I don't want anyone else determining what I can't say. There is too much room for error. If you are too stupid to explain to your child when a word is inappropriate, my vocabulary shouldn't have to suffer because of it.

I heard about a Vegan in Florida who asked for a vanity auto tag professing her love for tofu. Personally I think tofu is offensive but was surprised to learn the Florida DOT rejected her request for I LV TOFU. I know the Sunshine state has some squirrelly rules but I didn't see anything obscene here, unless the person making the decision is a meat eater.

If we must censor language can't we at least use some sense? Let's prohibit career politicians from blaming things on the people in Washington and stop calling restaurant entrees, cell phone deals, and shampoo amazing. And let's erase all vestiges of text language. To someone who loves words, OMG!! It'll be GR8 is offensive. If the Publix manager agrees it's a done deal.