Words, Put the S before the W & you get Sword
Words. How to choose them. How to use them, or not use them. Defining them. Interpreting their meaning within the context of what is being said. These are all ponderings I have had this week.
Let me start with a story. If you are new here, welcome, you are reading a post written by someone who has no college degree or special english/writing training. Therefore, perfect grammar is not one of the goals of this blog, but being real is. This being said, let me take you back to my high school days. I have a significant comprehension learning disability, so since I was homeschooled in high school, I was able to do Woodcock-Johnson for my “end-of-grade” testing (this wasn’t a requirement, but it would show where I landed academically for the next year). If you are not familiar with this test, it is given verbally, read aloud to you, and visually, I could see the question on a flip chart in front of me. By the time it was my last go around for this test, I was so done with the formal “have tos” of getting credits and such to graduate, and was already working jobs that I loved that my brain was nearly fried with information that I was trying to hold, but I knew wouldn’t need for the rest of my life. So when the final question of the test came, the easiest, simplest, a subject that I was actually fascinated with, my mind went completely blank. Nothing. Zero. I got hot all over. The lady giving the test kept looking at me, and finally I said, “I just can’t think of the word.” You ready for the question…. “What is the part of the skeleton that protects the brain called?” Yeah. A darn SKULL – It came to me the minute I stepped into the car to go home. And I haven’t stopped laughing since! It’s a real good thing my “school” was ending that year, because the SAT would have had no chance. 😂😂
I constantly mess up words. I may read a word too quickly and my brain mixes up the letters to make a whole different word. I easily get tongue tied and try to say something that I have so easily said before, but for some reason at the moment I just can’t form my mouth quite right to pronounce it right. And sometimes I just totally mess up a word and get confused on the meaning. And I lose words – like skull – the word that I really need in the moment!
I’ll have to admit SNL, Steven Colbert, Nate Bargatze and many other comedians have been a relief not only with the current administration, but with the realities of all my life. If you need a little light hearted laugh just look up acetaminophen and Steven Colbert.
On to the reason I writing words about words.
I ran across the above quote on instagram last night, and it hit me hard. Because a few statements coming from our US leadership has disturbed me greatly this week. Here are two examples:
- Last week in the State of the Union: Trump said, “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
- “We are just getting started.” – Pete Hegseth, press conference on Iran
The military operations of past administrations, during my lifetime, are: Operation Desert Storm, Operation Allied Force, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation Enduring Sentinel. Starting in 2025, the military operations seemed to take hostile turn: Operation Rough Rider, Operation Midnight Hammer, Operation Epic Fury, Operation Absolute Resolve, Operation Midway Blitz.
Allied. Noble. Freedom. Resolve. Versus Rough. Hammer. Fury. Absolute. Blitz. Maybe it’s just me, but these operations seem to have taken a turn toward anger instead of solutions.
Party preference isn’t high on my priority list these days. I honestly believe that there is extremes on all sides and really would like to see less party talk and finger pointing, and more turning the finger pointing on ourselves and re-evaluating how we got here. The topics I used to feel free to express and discuss, are now things I feel the most lonely in, outside my home. It’s difficult to speak up and discuss things when there is such a culture of division, and it is crushing. Words, actions, who and what we support is on the table for the world to ❤️ or criticize. We have been ushered into a critical time of choice: 1. bow and follow 2. become the “enemy” and trust Him in the heat of it all. (I can’t seem to get King Nebuchadnezzar out of my brain these days- take a look at Daniel 3.)
When I get rattled by the kind of statements above, I have to think through them, they don’t just rattle and roll on down and out of my mind. They stick in my brain until I wrestle with what is not connecting with my heart. The disturbance is too important to let go of.
Both statements encompass human lives, their safety, and their value. This should never be shrunk to words like “aliens,” “unwanted,” “deplorable,” etc. Especially if you are a Christ follower- a life is a life, period. If we could agree on this one basic issue, we would be so much happier! But for some reason the pro-lifers, in the party divisions, are the ones giving the insulting names. To be pro-life, my definition, is to respect and consider ALL living and breathing humans, in the womb, outside the womb, babies to elders, and all in between (and yes other living things – but sometimes we get a bit carried away with these things and don’t put enough into caring for one another, and that is not okay).
This is where words have to be defined by the person and the words that surround them. 1. Yes, the American government is to protect its citizens. We also are a nation who are all descendants of immigrants, with the exception of the Native Americans that we invaded- which is another post that maybe I will write someday. The reality is at some point in our history there was a part of the “system” of immigration that worked. It wasn’t perfect, for sure, but there was a process. That process was disrupted by battles, wars, change in administrations, needs for buildings and space for hospitals and other things. So very good reasons why the process was paused or reevaluated at some point. But that brings me to my 2. who is defining who is legal and illegal? Which I don’t like either, so I am going to use documented or undocumented, because either you have documents that say you are a citizen or in the process or you don’t. Either way, no person can be illegal, they are human, they have the same rights to be on this earth as you and I do. The person who is making this statement has a different definition of “criminal” and “undocumented” than me. He seems to think if you came here and are doing the right thing, and have been for many years, you should be punished. Now, I believe and know there have been provisions for certain countries and also I believe and know that sometimes time is not an option- so coming to the US, thinking it will be for a short stay with a Visa, is more complicated than just simply typing this sentence. I also know there are school scholarships and work visas that are not being respected – which is illegal, because these are LEGAL. So yes, I am aware that there are friends and neighbors who have come and not had the proper documents- I also know they have been doing their job as if they were a citizen, and sometimes more honestly than actual citizens! They have no criminal charges, not even traffic violations, but when they go to check in with the courts, aka do the right thing, they get detained?!? And those who have paper saying they have everything to be here in the US? They are getting detained too? I am flustered by their definition of criminal. 3. the flippancy of expectations of more mass casualties is mind-blowing. “Just getting started.” One life is too much. An all girls school was wiped out. CHILDREN!!!! It took days to get a briefing, just to hear conflicting “plans,” if you can call it that. We know we have lost 6 people from our military, some were reserves. How about that for someone who ran with the speaking point of ending wars? The casualties of the other countries are numerous. We lost 3 jets in one night, costs that could feed millions of children.
When we start seeing others as the enemy, we cease to see them as our fellow human beings. When we fail to see them as human, we are no longer seeing them as neighbors to love, to show mercy, to offer grace, and most of all, be a reason they see Jesus’ love for them. We can’t be perfect. Our words aren’t always polished, and don’t need to be. It’s a lie that “words will never hurt me.” They have the potential to encourage or crush, build up or destroy, which will it be?
Life Book of the Week: Noah Webster and His Words, by Jeri Chase Ferris
If you like Substack or would like a point of view from a former congressman, I recommend Adam Kinzinger and David French. I watch and listen to them many days to check to make sure I am not loosing my noggin!
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/update-video-iran?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
https://substack.com/@davidfrench3
Also, David French’s column in the NYT.
