Our first blog
Our first blog
Our hope is that this page will be a place for people to debate......(Harry Bridges believed in the power of debate)
My three most burning issues –
– the poverty of ideas, and money, in our educational system
– the growing gap between those who have and those who do not have, in America and in the world
– language and the use of language to distort the truth and protect the guilty
These are issues that are constantly fired up for me by what is happening in America today. I believe that their importance is and must be beyond politics, beyond preserving the power or position of a particular individual or party.
I'm sure that we all have lists of the issues that enrage, confound and amaze us, that sometimes take our breath away. But they must not take our voices away. They only have life through our silence.
So today I want to write about language...........and hear your responses to my thoughts and to what fires you up.
First, it seems to me that all the people to whom we give a certain power over our lives – the politicians, the military, the police, the judges – have a sacred obligation to speak the truth to us, the people. Not to circle their wagons and protect each other, like an old boys club, but to speak the truth to us. And when one of their own does wrong, or when one of their plans goes wrong, to have a sacred obligation to speak the truth to us about it. And a sacred obligation to honor language, not to force us to be constantly vigilant about words being used to confuse us and leave us unclear about what we think, and therefore what we think we should do.
From The Los Angeles Times (my local paper) Saturday, May 12th –
"Iraq's Interior Ministry said 234 people – men whose bodies were found throughout the capital – died at the hands of death squads in the first 11 days of May, compared with 137 in the same period of April. The tally so far for May (12th) is more that half the total for all of April, when 440 bodies were found. Calling the increase "very minimal", US military spokesman Army Major General William B. Caldwell IV said that "there has been a slight UPTICK....."
Now, leaving aside the fact that, in one city alone, 400 to 500 people per month are specifically assassinated, and that we certainly play some part in having created the situation in which these assassinations occur, and leaving aside the fact that these are only the number of people assassinated, as opposed to those being blown to pieces, should we not be ashamed that our Army Major General calls those 234 deaths "a slight uptick"?
Open a document on your computer and type in "a slight uptick" and you will be told that the word "uptick" does not exist (I know, it’s a slang used on stock markets for a price rising, but its not an actual word). Should our Army Major General not at least do honor to the dead by 1) speaking the truth (this is not a "very minimal" increase, especially to those killed)and by 2) using real words (this ain't no "uptick"). Shouldn't an Army Major General's first and sacred obligation be, not to attempt to diffuse the facts about a horrific aspect of this war (and cover the asses of those who launched it), but to speak the truth to we, the people? Isn't that what we pay US military spokesmen's salaries for – the truth?
So, this is one small-if -you-like example. I know that there are hundreds, thousands of them out there, spoken by all kinds of people from all walks of life and beliefs and politics. Please send them in and join in the debate.
Ian
Today, May 29th, the death toll of American military killed in Iraq in the month of May, so far, is 116. Will our Army Major General call these deaths "a slight uptick"?
Our hope is that this page will be a place for people to debate......(Harry Bridges believed in the power of debate)
My three most burning issues –
– the poverty of ideas, and money, in our educational system
– the growing gap between those who have and those who do not have, in America and in the world
– language and the use of language to distort the truth and protect the guilty
These are issues that are constantly fired up for me by what is happening in America today. I believe that their importance is and must be beyond politics, beyond preserving the power or position of a particular individual or party.
I'm sure that we all have lists of the issues that enrage, confound and amaze us, that sometimes take our breath away. But they must not take our voices away. They only have life through our silence.
So today I want to write about language...........and hear your responses to my thoughts and to what fires you up.
First, it seems to me that all the people to whom we give a certain power over our lives – the politicians, the military, the police, the judges – have a sacred obligation to speak the truth to us, the people. Not to circle their wagons and protect each other, like an old boys club, but to speak the truth to us. And when one of their own does wrong, or when one of their plans goes wrong, to have a sacred obligation to speak the truth to us about it. And a sacred obligation to honor language, not to force us to be constantly vigilant about words being used to confuse us and leave us unclear about what we think, and therefore what we think we should do.
From The Los Angeles Times (my local paper) Saturday, May 12th –
"Iraq's Interior Ministry said 234 people – men whose bodies were found throughout the capital – died at the hands of death squads in the first 11 days of May, compared with 137 in the same period of April. The tally so far for May (12th) is more that half the total for all of April, when 440 bodies were found. Calling the increase "very minimal", US military spokesman Army Major General William B. Caldwell IV said that "there has been a slight UPTICK....."
Now, leaving aside the fact that, in one city alone, 400 to 500 people per month are specifically assassinated, and that we certainly play some part in having created the situation in which these assassinations occur, and leaving aside the fact that these are only the number of people assassinated, as opposed to those being blown to pieces, should we not be ashamed that our Army Major General calls those 234 deaths "a slight uptick"?
Open a document on your computer and type in "a slight uptick" and you will be told that the word "uptick" does not exist (I know, it’s a slang used on stock markets for a price rising, but its not an actual word). Should our Army Major General not at least do honor to the dead by 1) speaking the truth (this is not a "very minimal" increase, especially to those killed)and by 2) using real words (this ain't no "uptick"). Shouldn't an Army Major General's first and sacred obligation be, not to attempt to diffuse the facts about a horrific aspect of this war (and cover the asses of those who launched it), but to speak the truth to we, the people? Isn't that what we pay US military spokesmen's salaries for – the truth?
So, this is one small-if -you-like example. I know that there are hundreds, thousands of them out there, spoken by all kinds of people from all walks of life and beliefs and politics. Please send them in and join in the debate.
Ian
Today, May 29th, the death toll of American military killed in Iraq in the month of May, so far, is 116. Will our Army Major General call these deaths "a slight uptick"?
