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These words dilute in a negative sense

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  • Originally published April 24, 2008 at 5:53 p.m., updated April 24, 2008 at 5:53 p.m.

Editor, The Advocate:

Words, words, words!

Just words? Election time especially, descriptive “words”! Where do they come from anyway? And why? Your archives this date, say Noah Webster and the American English Dictionary? I’ve always had ill feelings for “Webster’s.” I blame this book for most all our world problems. It really started with the Declaration of Independence, i.e., “All men” instead of “All people.” Webster’s would have been a much smaller read if it had read “All people.” The body of the letter goes here.

Then our “Constitution,” so grand an instrument: “We the people,” “good people of the colonies,” “No person,” “them,” “they,” “each other,” “the citizen of each state.” It’s a fine collection of “words.” The words are complete in themselves; there’s no need to expound upon them. And then came the “Amendments”: “Right of the people,” “no person,” “any person,” “to the people,” “all persons.” But they’re complete only until we reached Amendment 14. Section 2: “male inhabitants!” There was no need for this. We were already “We the people.” Then Amendment 15, Section 1: “race; creed; color and previous condition of servitude.” No need for this. Already we had “we the people.”

Since these “Amendments,” we have injected many descriptive words. I guess because politicians do not believe we can understand “we the people.” As witnessed these past months in newspaper and TV, our people seeking to govern us have decided we have a “middle class and upper class” people.

I guess we also have a “lower class” citizen, person, or people? Blame Webster’s. I can only dream of our country today if “we” were still the “people,” the “citizens,” instead of class; wetback; honky; gringo; nigger; spik; wop; kike; Muslim; Sheite; Jew; Catholic; Mormon; Baptist; etc., all Webster’s “words.”

Robert Patrick

Victoria



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