DOMENSIONS IN SPEECH How can it be, I find myself wondering , that the planet Earth on which we live, can seem to be shrinking and becoming smaller while, at the same time, there is plenty of evidence that insists it is also maturing, even growing larger at the same time?
Just as we do in the so many of our defenses again life's more harsh circumstances, we often deceive ourselves by making strange uses of our connective quality we call “language” or “speech”.
We can, if speech is seen as a means of attaining unity, see it also as being an active ingredient in the recipe for friction, failure, rumors of, then, conditions of actual war. At such times we can even make use of the very same words as we re-use them to bring about the opposite view. Some curious uses are made of terms which
prove cooking up of real boil, and even double-bubble boil and trouble cauldrons to be a common political diversion.
The world is, at best, and ally rather than a friend.
Living has never been easy. It demands involvement and the exercise of special cautions to avoid or minimize conflicts and to encourage understanding, tolerance, and empathy in various social areas. If we Americans can permit our legislative governmental officials to bicker over petty things such as that which have been commonplace during the past few weeks as “outs” have tried to filibuster nominations made by the “ins” - to death. Such childish harangues are hardly to be called statesmanship.
The willingness of certain political leaders to take a public stand on such a silly subject, might well serve as an indication of weaknesses of their other stated beliefs.
One redeeming point I have found to be in all of this to-do about all this change of rules tactic is found in the fact that not one party member has stepped up to say how proud he is that his vote recipient stood forth in such a manner for the poor, put-upon and mis-treated minorities.
A.L.M. May 29, 2005 [c356wds]
