Saturday, November 22, 2014

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." - Niels Bohr

From friend Sue.

In addition to the after-effects of yesterday's surgical procedure I seem to have picked up a head cold. My nose has gone rogue and I'm having trouble keeping up with the flow, if you know what I mean. Should make for an interesting time tomorrow morning.

The site of the dr.'s fine work was to be kept covered for the first 24 hours but open after that, so I took their bandage off this morning. I'll be covering it up for church tomorrow. Not real pleasant looking. They promised it would get better with time.

[begin rant]
Words are slippery things. The same word can mean different things to different people, different things in different eras, and be either complimentary or pejorative in different contexts. But that doesn't mean words don't matter or can be used carelessly. Worse than careless is intentionally misusing a word because of the desired emotional response it will evoke within one's target audience. Take, for example, the word amnesty.

Amnesty: a general pardon for offenses, especially political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.

Whatever you think of the President's executive order re. illegal immigrants it was not the granting of amnesty to millions. A general pardon is not temporary, requiring another, later action to renew the status. Amnesty does not impose requirements like registering, paying any taxes due, or passing a background check. In short, amnesty exempts one from future prosecution for the offense(s) in question, and the President's action does not do that.

Sen. Ted Cruz leads the large group of prominent officials using the word amnesty knowing full well it does not apply in this case. Why? Because they know their constituents have an emotional response to the word that overrides sticky things like definitions. The average Joe thinks people who commit a crime should do the time, and amnesty is something that allows guilty people to escape all the consequences the rest of us would have to pay because they are somehow in a special class. Not fair!

Under the President's plan these illegal immigrants are not granted citizenship and not immune from prosecution or deportation. They are granted temporary permission to stay in the country for a specified amount of time if they meet certain conditions.

A strong case can be made, IMO, that the President's executive order was not good for the country for several reasons. But misusing a word because it evokes a strong negative response to his order distracts us from the real problematic aspects of his decision. And it allows those who support his action to write off the opponents as ignorant reactionaries with a knee-jerk reaction to anything the President does.

Whatever else it does, the President's executive order does not grant amnesty to anyone. If someone objects to what he's done it should be based on real facts and data, not hot-button words used to get careless thinkers worked up. Those who misuse the word amnesty either don't know its meaning or don't care, and in either case they don't deserve a seat at the table.
[end rant]

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