Refugees or Evacuees

I have never liked the politically "correct" movement, particularly it's penchant for controlling language (thought?).

Lately I have heard the thought police trying to enforce the notion that people should say evacuee, not refugee, when speaking of Katrina's displaced.

I am somewhat perplexed, since a refugee is essentially one that seeks refuge, and not to my knowledge a term of derision:

Full definition here

Perhaps some people can't stand the notion that we in America can have our own refugees and so their response is to sanitize the language, thereby comforting themselves with righteous indignation and a linguistic wall of obscurity.

I do know that I am going to continue to say refugee here because I believe it is a phrase that garners sympathy, and sympathy is the mother of giving. I also feel that the hardest-hit victims of Katrina were not evacuee's (that is to say people that were evacuated) and that was indeed a large part of their problem.