When Words Are Not 'Just Words'
One of the most destructive effects of the George Bush years -- which are mercifully soon to come to a close -- is their contribution to the dumbing-down of the populace. Comfortable in his marginal literacy, Bush has given us "People misunderestimate me" and "Is our children learning?" At a time when newspapers are struggling to interest the young and keep the old, Bush famously said he hardly read more than the headlines and left the actual reading of newspapers to his staff, whose members, he presumed, were reading.
Joining Bush in the stampede away from reading are nearly half of Americans. A National Endowment for the Arts report, quoted in the Washington Post, said only about 67 percent of U.S. college graduates read for pleasure and only about 60 percent of Americans under 44 read a book a year. The conspirators against literacy and intelligence include the multitude of video games, the texting craze, the surfeit of television offerings. These may stimulate communication, but do little to create eloquence and understanding. ("OMG," your children are saying. "It's NBD.")
Even basic communication seems to be suffering. Witness the parent or nanny pushing a stroller and holding a telephone to her ear. The child in the stroller is getting nothing of the back-and-forth of words except the cryptic one half of the phone conversation. How many baby- sitters -- or parents, for that matter -- read regularly to their charges?
More and more words are showing up in dictionaries as accepta- ble alternatives to what used to be the only proper usage. People now in- creasingly seem to be using "lay" instead of "lie," for example in the ex- pression "lie low." Webster's Unabridged says "lay" is the "informal" usage. It used to be the joke that if you had a painter put your name over your door, it would come out something like "The Smith's" or "The Brown's." That apostrophe sneaked (or "snuck" as is now accepted) into the words, having migrated from such as the clumsy signs on restrooms announcing "Ladies" and "Mens." Is there harm in careless usage of punctuation or grammar? Yes, because it surely has a role in the overall reduction of literacy. "The car careening out of control smashed into a retaining wall" or, "The car, careening out of control, smashed into a re- taining wall." The first implies one car among several, the second indi- cates a car alone.
Back to Bush: Whereas his predecessor in the White House was articulate in offering details on many topics on the spur of the moment, Bush most often is reduced to such sweeping and detail-free declara- tions as "I am the decider," "I am a uniter," "It's hard; I understand it's hard," etc.
The solution, of course, is more than political. Educated Ameri- cans must fight the temptation to let television replace books in the struggle for their attention and must work to get their children interested at an early age in the wonders of the printed word.
Joining Bush in the stampede away from reading are nearly half of Americans. A National Endowment for the Arts report, quoted in the Washington Post, said only about 67 percent of U.S. college graduates read for pleasure and only about 60 percent of Americans under 44 read a book a year. The conspirators against literacy and intelligence include the multitude of video games, the texting craze, the surfeit of television offerings. These may stimulate communication, but do little to create eloquence and understanding. ("OMG," your children are saying. "It's NBD.")
Even basic communication seems to be suffering. Witness the parent or nanny pushing a stroller and holding a telephone to her ear. The child in the stroller is getting nothing of the back-and-forth of words except the cryptic one half of the phone conversation. How many baby- sitters -- or parents, for that matter -- read regularly to their charges?
More and more words are showing up in dictionaries as accepta- ble alternatives to what used to be the only proper usage. People now in- creasingly seem to be using "lay" instead of "lie," for example in the ex- pression "lie low." Webster's Unabridged says "lay" is the "informal" usage. It used to be the joke that if you had a painter put your name over your door, it would come out something like "The Smith's" or "The Brown's." That apostrophe sneaked (or "snuck" as is now accepted) into the words, having migrated from such as the clumsy signs on restrooms announcing "Ladies" and "Mens." Is there harm in careless usage of punctuation or grammar? Yes, because it surely has a role in the overall reduction of literacy. "The car careening out of control smashed into a retaining wall" or, "The car, careening out of control, smashed into a re- taining wall." The first implies one car among several, the second indi- cates a car alone.
Back to Bush: Whereas his predecessor in the White House was articulate in offering details on many topics on the spur of the moment, Bush most often is reduced to such sweeping and detail-free declara- tions as "I am the decider," "I am a uniter," "It's hard; I understand it's hard," etc.
The solution, of course, is more than political. Educated Ameri- cans must fight the temptation to let television replace books in the struggle for their attention and must work to get their children interested at an early age in the wonders of the printed word.
----Veritas
