Is anyone bothered by the word “folks” as much as I am?

I feel a sting every time I hear it spoken, whether by my namesake Bill O’Reilly on Fox News or by President Obama who uses it ten or eleven times in every sentence: “I know folks are frustrated out there, but listen folks, it’s gonna be tough on folks for a while and folks need to understand that.”

People everywhere are using it now, and it seems to be getting worse by the day. 

I’m no linguist, but I’m pretty sure the word derives from the German “Volks” for people. Do we really need another German import? Aren’t “kindergarten”, “sauerkraut”, and “hamburger” enough? “Folks” strikes me as an invasive assault on the American vernacular that needs to be eradicated like the Chinese Snake Fish or South American Killer Bee.

I write this because I almost used the word this morning, volks. Almost.