St. Joseph Newsleader • www.thenewsleaders.com
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Friday, Oct. 11, 2013
Opinion
Our View
Give ACA a fair trial before death sentence
Most people – civilized ones anyway – would agree no person should be condemned to death without a fair trial. But that is exactly what so many otherwise fair-minded, civilized people are doing with the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare). They’re like a lynch mob in the old West. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas calls the law a “horror,” among other fearful names. Many letter-to-editor writers to newspapers, including this one, roundly condemn the ACA long before it’s had its “fair trial.” And, of course, the distortions, misconceptions and even outright lies against the law continue: It will skyrocket everyone’s insurance-premium costs. It will bankrupt the country. It will institute death panels. It will allow illegal aliens to be on the program. It will be a government takeover of the healthcare system. On Oct. 1, the ACA got off to a rocky start, to be sure, because of computer-site problems. Of course, the law’s close-minded critics took that as a sure omen the entire ACA is nothing but a biggovernment, bureaucratic boondoggle. Some critics of the ACA are sincere and reasonable, and many criticisms might prove to be accurate. Like any innovative program, there are bound to be problems along the way, just as there were when the Medicare program began in 1965. In the 1980s, Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Rep. Tim O’Neill put their heads together to make Medicare more long-term solvent by increasing the qualifying retirement age, among other fixes. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those Republicans, so scornful of the ACA, would get together with Democrats (including some skeptical Democrats) to improve the law? Of course, that kind of cooperation is not going to happen because those who made up their minds to hate the ACA from the get-go (three years ago) will continue to fume about it. What’s interesting is the sheer hand-rubbing glee some of these haters express when there is a glitch (such as the computer problems on start-up day). Again, some criticisms of ObamaCare may prove to be spot-on. Such sincere criticisms, no doubt, will lead to many improvements in the program. We should listen to and heed the constructive criticisms. Will it, for example, succeed in lowering overall health-care costs, as planned? But in the meantime, the most destructive critics should consider taking a more open-minded attitude, at least until they have positive proof about what a “horror” it is. In other words, good folks, let’s at least give the ACA a fair chance before condemning it to death.
Fairness and ethics
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World Cafe a veritable United Nations There was a palpable energy as I walked into the evening session of the World Cafe. A gathering of close to 100 people, organized by St. Cloud School District 742, met the evening of Oct. 8 at the Whitney Senior Center to discuss ideas and share experiences of what our schools mean to each, how they would like others to perceive them and what we can do to improve our local education system. As I glanced around the large room, I saw familiar faces such as new Superintendent Willie Jett; former St. Joseph Kennedy Community School Principal Diane Moeller, who now acts as the district’s assistant superintendent; several school board members; and even some St. Cloud Tech High School students whom I’d met through my daughter, who graduated from there this past spring. Groups of four introduced one another, then focused on a specific question for about 15-20 minutes. Once each had had a chance to express his/her concerns, the groups would
Janelle Von Pinnon Publisher stand, then individuals would move to another table to mingle and discuss another thought-provoking topic and diligently record each person’s input. The interaction that transpired was polite, respectful, thoughtful and thoroughly stimulating. I met people who spoke sparse English (with interpreters who assisted); parents of current students; some teachers (present and former) and staff of the school district; the students themselves; and even a few senior citizens among the crowd. I saw people in three-piece suits, some in native African garb, some in jeans. Young and old, natives and transplants, male and female assembled with one common goal – a concern for the future education of our youth.
As a group, we could have given some lessons to our current politicians on how to interact and cooperate. The hum of speech vibrated soothingly throughout the room. Granted, we were all there with the same purpose and intent. However, we were a mixture of backgrounds, personalities and experiences – a veritable United Nations. Granted, that evening was just one component of the vision quest for the school district. Many more are still to follow prior to reaching the ultimate goal of a strategic plan. But I believe this was probably one of the more meaningful aspects of the process, and I commend Jett and our current school board members for including the community at large in their efforts in achieving a broad spectrum of ideas. In the words of famous anthropologist Margaret Mead, who had a lot of noteworthy things to say about education and society, “Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
To be honest, let’s quit abusing English Every few months or so, a language-misusage fad comes down the pike. About six months ago, for some strange reason, many people were sprinkling semicolons incorrectly throughout their email messages, memos and press releases. It was like a measles epidemic with semicolons being the measles spots. Here’s just one example of that craze, during which semicolons began to take the place of just about any form of punctuation: “We went to Germany; and then Austria; before we boarded a plane to St. Petersburg; Russia.” Thankfully, the semicolon plague appears to have passed. However, we are now in the midst of a rampant “honesty” pestilence. Many people are preceding their comments with the words “Honestly . . . “ or “To be honest . . . “ You can hear it on talk shows all the time. They’ll say sentences like this: “To be honest, it’s supposed to warm up next weekend.” Or: “Honestly, the store doesn’t open until 9 a.m.” What does honesty have to do with stores opening or warming forecasts? I suppose it’s a way of people trying to “underline” what they’re saying, rather like putting an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence or typing a sentence in bold print. People who really want to get your attention will say something like this: “To be perfectly honest, people of all ages are invited to the concert.” There are times when “honesty” has its place in language, as in the following sentence: “OK, to be honest, father, I did chop down that cherry tree.” However, unless a person is ‘fessing up or down on his knees doing penance, it’s best to avoid those “honesty” intros.
Dennis Dalman Editor We can only hope a brisk winter wind blows away this new word flu. The following are other languagemisusage trends, some of which I fear may become permanent: More people are starting to say “conscious” for “conscience.” I can’t count the number of political leaders on TV who have said, “My conscious won’t allow me to vote for that bill.” This misusage popped up especially during the government shut-down when politicians were blaming one another for not having a “conscious.” I’m just waiting for one of them to say, “To be honest, he has no conscious.” “Conscious” for “conscience” is similar to the time politicians were saying “eminent” strike for “imminent” strike when the Syrian crisis was at its peak. Another apparent trend is to say something like this: “The students will tore France next month.” They say “tore” for “tour” and “torenament” for “tournament.” They’ll also say “shore” for “sure.” That pronunciation just might be an example of regionalism, probably indigenous to the New England area. An example of a regionalism is the way some people, including Bostonians like President John F. Kennedy, would say “Cuber” for “Cuba.” If it’s a regionalism, “tore” for “tour” is not incorrect. However, I don’t recall having heard that pronunciation at all before the last year or so. Besides, many people on TV are saying “tore” who are not
New Englanders or Easterners. Then, alas, there are the old misusage bugaboos that stubbornly persist, and I’m afraid there may never be a vaccine to prevent them. The worst is the widespread habit of using apostrophes to make singular words plural words. That mistake has become rampant these days. Here is an example I noticed recently on a fundraising poster: “We collect supply’s for the charity’s at the door also.” The writer of that sentence mistakenly thought the way to form a plural word is to add an apostrophe, then an “s” on a singular word: one supply, two supply’s. It’s doubly wrong because to make a plural word out of most singular words that end in “y,” the writer must drop the “y” and add “ies.” It should have been: “We collect supplies for the charities at the door also.” The other day I saw this sign: “Tenant’s must park in the back.” That’s an example of using a possessive apostrophe where it does not belong – in a non-possessive plural word (tenants). It should be: “Tenants must park in the back.” As a lifelong student of the magnificent English language, what most perturbs me is these misusages seem to be the new norm. Some people like to excuse the use of sloppy language by saying, “Oh, well, it’s no big deal. Everyone knows what it means.” That’s not necessarily so. Such inaccuracies can change the meaning of phrases and sentences. When it comes to language or anything else, none of us is perfect, but wouldn’t it be nice if more of us would learn to respect our language by learning to use it correctly?
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