Vocabulary Lesson
I know, I know, language is a living thing. Can’t stop the beat. When I wasn’t looking, “good”
became “bad,” everyone dropped the conditional tense, and we started putting
only one space after periods. (I blame the nuns.) But
even in our gas-lit world, it's alarming that a certain group (let’s call them
Republicans) shroud their bad behavior and bad intentions in the catch-all “political
differences,” like a cloak of invisibility.
Calling the way we view our treatment of children running to
us for safety a matter of political differences is a disingenuous use of the phrase. It implies there are several rational ways for
civilized good people to treat children running to us for safety. There are
not. People who believe that it is okay to cage children and make them drink
from toilets are bad people. It’s not a political debate, it’s a moral failing—God
have mercy on their shrunken evil souls—and they are moral dwarfs. Can we start
calling them that? Moral dwarfs.
Taking away legitimate rights from other citizens (I’m
talking LGBT, Black, Brown, WOMEN, Muslim, Jewish, disabled, POOR)…calling that
a matter of political differences is a disingenuous use of the phrase. Withholding legal rights from citizens is a
crime. Full stop. Breaking the law is not political, it’s criminal. People who
break the law are criminals, ergo, people who withhold rights from legitimate
citizens are criminals. Let’s start calling them that: Criminals.
Parceling out our national treasure so that only a tribe of oligarchic
despots benefit…calling that a matter of political difference is, you got it, a disingenuous
use of the phrase. It’s not a difference
in politics, it’s breaking one of the Ten Commandments that Republicans are so
eager to post everywhere (because they obviously have no innate sense of right
and wrong and need constant guidance), “Thou shalt not steal.” People who steal
what belongs to us all and give it to their friends are thieves. Can we start
calling them what they are? Thieves.
While we’re at it, can we talk about the word “Patriotism”? It’s
the fourth of July and that word is getting taken out to dinner a lot. Being a
Tom Brady fan doesn’t make me a patriot any more than covering my torso in stars
and stripes tattoos does. For that matter, rooting for the US Women’s Soccer Team doesn’t make me a patriot either, no matter how much glee I get (a lot!)
from them beating the English team. We’re
a country which is an assembly of people with roots in different places, hopefully
all marching towards the same goal: equal access to opportunity and equal
access to justice under the law. Sports
teams and flags have nothing to do with it, unless you think that winning
athletes reflect our national spirit of skill, team work, and perseverance, and unless you think that the flag stands for something like equal access to
opportunity and equal access to justice under the law. And not some jingoistic bullshit like “love
it or leave it” or “we’re number ONE!” Because….please. Are you in third grade? On
July 4, 1976, an Irish Jesuit missionary giving the sermon at my church said, “Congratulations,
Americans. You made it 200 years and you think you’re going to last forever. But
you know what? You would be the first country in the history of the world that has.” It’s been a subtext of my life to prove him wrong. And having our democracy
overrun by thieves, criminals, and moral dwarfs significantly reduces my
chances.
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