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August 2009 |
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
From the Editor |
Many times throughout a day or a week, within the confines of my comfortable little Gazette office, where nary another soul tarries, I overhear statements and reports that jar me from the work at hand. Then I glance toward the television, away from the computer, relax my wrists and posture, and listen for a while. At the end of one whole day, and certainly one whole week, as well as these past many months and years, I’ve spent a substantial amount of time with a variety of “news” channels and a potpourri of talking heads as I intentionally switch from one to the other to see who’s covering what and how they’re covering it. You probably know that the various media outlets often do not cover the same news, and they certainly don’t cover the same news in the same manner. Such coverage is by design, not by accident, and it’s become rather predictable for me. In probing the various news channels I pick up glaring omissions and less than hidden lies. I see obvious distortions. I see wolves in sheep’s clothing. I see commentators who try to tickle the ears and it works because they know their audience, but does their audience really know them? I’ve come to think that, yes, many of them do. Birds of a feather, you know. When my endurance has been pushed to the envelope’s edge, I switch to the food channel or to the old black and white movies or to my uplifting classical music. It is then that I laugh with the cooking antics of Paula Deen, cry with the dramatics of Greta Garbo, or be moved with the symphonics of Debussy and Claire de lune. This past Wednesday, July 29th, as I continued working on this issue of the Gazette, I was distracted this time by a report from a news channel’s guest whose exposé more than paralleled past similar reports. “You won’t believe what words are being banned from your kids’ school textbooks.” I leaned back in my rocker-style chair and paid attention to the rest of what Tucker Carlson had to say. Mr. Carlson said that textbook people are eradicating words such as ‘chairman,’ ‘workmanship,’ ‘founding fathers,’ ‘caveman,’ and many others. He said students are being taught to use the word ‘founders’ instead of ‘founding fathers,’ ‘cave dweller’ instead of ‘caveman,’ and ‘chair’ instead of chairman or chairwoman. ‘Mankind’ becomes humankind. ‘Motherhood’ and ‘fatherhood’ become parenthood. “Mothering” becomes parenting. “It’s an effort to pretend there are no differences between men and women.” Another goal, I suspect, is to get young minds to perceive people more as objects -- like chairs. When people are objects rather than human beings made in the image and likeness of God, male and female He made them, they become easier to discard, especially those at the very beginning and ending of life’s spectrum and those with some sort of flaw as perceived by the powerful elite. “It’s an effort to change the social fabric of our country.” I see that our fabric, social or otherwise, can consist of natural and unadulterated cotton, or homespun wool, or a blend of polyester and spandex, or whole bolts of other synthetics that can’t breathe on their own. I see that the fabric of our country is changing, has changed, in fact. It used to be more of a plaid with straight lines and coordinating colors. Now the fabric is frayed denim with holes and baggy pockets hanging much too low on the hips of young men, not to mention skin-tight shirts for girls and women of all sizes and shapes. Oofda. “It’s an effort to change the country through the minds of our children.” Sounds rather histrionic, I agree, but textbook people are indeed rewriting -- changing -- our history and not just through our vocabulary. Surely you are aware that ‘change’ is a very popular word today. (You might recite the Serenity Prayer since it bears repeating at this time.) I would say let’s change the baby’s diaper but let’s not change lanes when a speeding car is coming up on us from behind. “It’s an effort to whitewash reality and get rid of men from the textbook. The dreaded word is m-a-n.” If this weren’t so serious, we could laugh about it. I don’t particularly like my husband in the kitchen underfoot, but if he wants to spend time in a textbook, that’s fine with me. As for whitewashing reality, that has been happening since the beginning of time, although this phase does seem particularly bold, unusually audacious. “An effort to control language is an effort to control thought.” Paging through a student’s textbook would be like visiting the various news channels that invade our minds and our homes and the office of the Victoria Gazette. We can support and encourage those who speak and write clearly or we can wallow with those who whitewash. It’s really very simple. |