No, Senator Menendez, You Don’t Get to Play the Race Card!
This is why words must handled with the same care we would give an egg that has fallen from a bird’s nest
As a kid, I recall the commotion that a single lost egg from a bird’s nest could kick up in our neighborhood. Huddled in a hushed mass, as many kids as happened to be out at the moment playing — without parents in tow — that’s how many would be looking down at the little egg.
“What do we do?”
“Let’s put it back!” A quick discussion of the logistics of how to get it back up the tree to the nest would usually result in displays of climbing bravado — “I can get up that high” — to giggling — “What are you a squirrel?”
“Let’s make an omelette!” No one was ever sure if that was a joke or just a hungry kid, but it was shooed away with “Ewwwws” and maybe a slap on the back, “Don’t be dumb.”
Inevitably, someone would come running out of the house with a basket cushioned with a towel and maybe some cotton balls. The egg would last be seen getting gently hauled off to the home of the kid who most clearly envisioned raising the little chick for his very own avian pet.
What happened to our care for words?
I do enjoy blaming the downfall of American society on Fox News. To be fair, though, Fox News didn’t cause our current collapse, but it has hastened it by making half of our country, for lack of better words, stupid. Yes, it sounds harsh, but my assessment is fair and balanced (pun intended).
Smart people, talented at their jobs, have permitted the emotional manipulation of Fox to wash away all formerly recognized rhyme and reason. Their brains are diced, spliced, chopped up, and then reformed into patties of spicey ignorance, anxiety, and fear-infested opinions based on nothing tangible.
The reason, though, I am partly blaming Fox here is because when they came onto the scene in 1996, they made it a point to attack anyone using or adhering to the definitions of politically correct terms. I admit that I, too, oppose the linguistic authoritarianism often exercised by the politically correct. It served a purpose but was pushed too far. It…
