Meanderings: Word watch
Remember when we spent our time arguing about whether 2000 or 2001 was the start of the new millennium? Bring back the old one, give us another shot at it.
I suppose the phrase "give us another shot at it" isn't one people should use anymore. It might be interpreted as a terroristic threat.
We're being told to take those phrases more seriously now. Authorities get involved when a kid gets in a school yard fight and screams "I'm gonna kill you!" Because occasionally, they do.
The other side is something prompted the kid to scream that. It may have been nothing more than an angry phrase. It may be that the child truly feels their life is threatened by the other child — in which case, let's hope the authorities come down as hard on him as they do on the one who used the phrase.
You can't joke about having a bomb when you board a plane. You can't scrawl "anthrax present" on an envelope and send it through the mail. You can't idly figure out a way to shoot up a school, even if you would never dream of doing such a thing.
A professional basketball coach recently resigned. Most team officials say it was because the team was losing and he needed to make a change. However, it came a few days after the coach used the word "Mexican" as an epithet to respond to an abusive fan.
Many Hispanics voiced outrage and called for his resignation. The coach, to his credit, made a sincere and public apology after the statement. The team suspended him for several games.
Most reports I've seen indicate the coach was less of a racist than many white people. He had never publicly blamed America's problems on illegal aliens crossing the border. How many people in Marion County have voiced, or at least not disagreed with, such statements? But because he was in a high-profile job, making a great deal of money, his one statement had more impact than his years of service.
The coach could have made his point without using ethnic words. He could have ignored the person and trotted home to read the numbers on his paycheck, which had more digits than the rest of us will ever see.
Words are powerful, but stupid words are not so much a trap as they are self-incrimination.
— MATT NEWHOUSE
