WORDS AND CONCEPTS

We live with a strange language. We call it English, but the English call it American. That there is a real difference in pronunciation cannot be denied. Whether the vocabulary is different is less obvious, in our international day of communications. However, that our words are confusing can leave no doubt in anyone’s mind.

In a crossword puzzle I was doing, the word was ‘scale’ called for a five letter word. To me the natural association was the weighing machine. Wrong! The answer was climb. And so it goes. A four letter word for sewer had me ready to toss in the towel for lack of the proper language for water conduits. It turned out to be ‘Ross’ as in Betsy Ross, indeed a great American sewer!

Pronunciation to those who don’t know the language must be equally difficult to comprehend. Why does the ‘u’ change sound in ‘put’ and ‘putt’, but not in ‘but’ and ‘butt’? Why, in fact, when a butt is 'head-on’ does it also refer to the human rear? These ar, indeed, ponderous thoughts when your head seeks answers constantly to all the questions no one else think to ask....or answer!

How do we come to call the offspring of our children ‘grand’ when we would scarcely have referred to their parents as such. Why are we interchangeably referred to the children of our nieces and nephews as ‘great’ or ‘grand’ aunt? Why are some relatives ‘once removed’ when they are still hanging around?

These questions are as profound to me as the mutual use of Hope and Change when spoken by Obama or McCain. What can they mean if what they propose in their respective platforms is truly intended? Are Hope and Change truly such ambiguous words that people give them their own definition? We accepted Bush’s promise to bring morality back to the White House but, though he didn’t display sexual immorality, he lied and caused the deaths, poverty and suffering of thousands of people (actually millions). Yet there are those who do not accept this obvious inequality of offense and are still unable to let go the brainwashing offered as to the sins of Clinton versus the sins of Bush. Are our choices to come down to Obfuscation versus Results? The future of America is certainly not clear, is it?