some words

Words have very exact meaning. We invented adjectives to help us better define the true way we interpret some words. Words have been bandied about used as weapons to disenfranchise, divide and diminish the truth. Perhaps we need to read from the same script to understand the common meaning of words, and then decide after acknowledging their meaning, how we use those words to define some with whom we disagree.

We have a new Congress in session, and they have been proponents of using words to describe their vision of reality and their version of what just happened during the past two years. They were elected to power by a part of the population that sometimes just listened to words and never bothered to find their meaning. They were also elected by a group of people who never stood behind their word to keep change alive and decided to stay home and not vote.

We are told by the 112 Congress that they are doing the people’s business. But why is that they are so select as to which people they are working for? The 112the Congress wants to repeal the Health Care Bill, they want to pay for tax cuts for the ultra wealthy by cutting back on social security, pensions, education. We are told by the 112 Congress that they want to treat all people the same but they refuse to discuss same sex marriage, a fair immigration policy, and want the term a Christian nation to be the norm for all of the citizens of the United States.

I listen to words spoken on cable TV from the Right and the Left, I read words written by journalists on the Left and the Right. I hear words spoken by Evangelical preachers to Progressive Agnostics and worry that sometimes when spoken, read or heard their words are lacking a common understanding.

Right now as I listen to House Speaker John Boehner and his newly elected majority in the House certain words, adjectives come to mind. I wish they wouldn’t, but somehow some of these adjectives just seem to resonate loud and scary:

ca·pri·cious Adjective: Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. impulsive and unpredictable;determined by chance,impulse or whim

fal·la·cious Adjective: Containing a fallacy; logically unsound: fallacious arguments. deceptive; misleading: fallacious testimony.

vin.dic.tive Adjective: Having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge.

dis·hon·or·a·ble Adjective: Characterized by or causing dishonor or discredit. Lacking integrity; unprincipled.

de·lusion·al Adjective: Suffering from or characterized by delusions, affected with emotional disorder.

de·ceit·ful. Adjective: Deceiving or misleading others, Intended to deceive or mislead.

I was hoping that after all of our distress, recession, hate mongering bias and bigotry, Americans would wake up and elect a Congress that used the following words on both sides of the aisle:

con·sen·sus Noun: general agreement, the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned

com·pro·mise Noun: settlement of differences by arbitration or by consent reached by mutual

con- ces-sions, Noun: something intermediate between or blending qualities of two different things

eq·ui·ty Noun: justice according to natural law or right; specifically : freedom from bias or favoritism

¹fair Adjective: marked by impartiality and honesty: free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism

All of these words have to do with my observation of the incoming newly elected 112th Congress. Words they say worry me oh so much.

112th U.S. Congress. Noun. Elected in 2010 by the American population who decided to vote.

In the Senate the Democrats retain the majority control 51 (D), 47 (R), 2 (I)

Republicans hold a 242-193 conservatives' majority in the House and have pledged to challenge President Barack Obama both with legislation and with their power to investigate. The first salvo is expected next week, a bill to repeal the sweeping health care law that Democrats pushed to passage 10 months ago and have vowed to defend.

Reid signaled as much, and more, in a speech marking the beginning of a new two-year Congress in which he outlined an agenda of building on the past two years "We have to do even more to help middle-class families, to create jobs, to hasten our energy independence, to improve our children's education and to fix our broken immigration system," he said. (yahoo news)

In the next two years a whole lot of words will be spoken, just like a whole lot of words we heard during the past two years. We all need to be verbal this time around to make sure we are speaking the same words with the same meaning.