Obama's grammar stirs controversy
Yes, I know I wasn't going to get involved in any more political blogging, but this is DIFFERENT! This is a GRAMMAR issue, and, as an old English teacher, I absolutely cannot stay out of this one! Sorry. Can't do it. I have to talk about this. It's just too funny!
First, let me say that grammar is a real hot button issue in my family. Always has been. (Yes, I know that's an incomplete sentence, but it's deliberate, you know..). My son Todd, now a 34-year-old environmental engineer in Minnesota, was the most grammar-conscious of all my three children. He thought public mistakes with apostrophes were hilarious. I guess we could classify that as "nerd humor," and he would probably agree. I actually considered giving him a pad of sticky notes labeled "the Grammar Police," so he could issue citations for grammar and punctuation violations that he saw in the grocery store, school bulletin boards, everywhere! We had a lot of fun with it.
This morning my sister sent me this notice from the "Borowitz Report," Nov. 18, 2008:
Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.
According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.
"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."
The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, showing off."
The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska:
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.
Can you see why I can't stay out of this? For a dilapidated old English teacher like me, struggling along in her waning years, trying to eke out a meager existence in the twilight of retirement, this is just too good to pass up. For someone whose younger friends say things like, "Madeline, who uses a word like 'egregious'?" this is a dream come true!
I find myself looking forward to four years of presidential speeches in which the word choice, the sentence structure, and the vocabulary remind me of a poem by Robert Frost!
C'mon, folks - cut me a little slack! In a mere matter of heartbeats, I'll be so wrapped up in dementia that I'll be doing good to remember my own name. Don't begrudge me these last few simple little pleasures, as my feeble mind rides off into the final sunset of life.
Let's all sit back and enjoy four years, listening to English spoken the way it ought to be spoken. This time, it's not "the King's English" - It's "the President's English"!
I, for one, intend to enjoy it!
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"Negativity dispirits the soul of society. Candidates may prevail in elections by tearing down rather than uplifting, but they cannot then unite an angered citizenry.
"It is always appropriate to contrast approaches to government, to suggest an opponent is too big or tightfisted a spender, too heavy a taxer or too undisciplined a tax cutter, to quick to go to war or too slow to respond to a national challenge. But it is never appropriate to lie, to impugn patriotism, or feed or inspire prejudice."
I wonder if that let's us off the hook as "elitists"?
Never fear, dear readers, I am working on a new blog as we speak! If it turns out as I hope, it'll knock your socks off!! Well....if you like HISTORY, it'll be a sock-knocker-offer, at least!
HAAAAANG OOOOOOON!!!! (And try to avoid duct-taping each other to the wall, okay????)
Party pooper! We were talking about GRAMMAR, for Pete's sake!