Words Mean Things

WORDS MEAN THINGS. This bit of pithy profundity comes straight from rush limbaugh, and it may be the most accurate statement of fact he, or anyone else ever made. The current example is the furor over the martin luther king statue in washington D.C.

MLK, speaking with his usual passion in the nineteen sixties, said, roughly, "if you say that I was a drum major, say that i was a drum major for peace, justice, and righteousness." He was responding to a comment from some bigot who had suggested that king was a drum major for lawlessness and trouble making.

Then came the king memorial, on which was  inscribed the truncated version, reading: "I was a drum major for peace, justice, and righteousness."  Well, of course, by cutting off the first part of the quote, the base of the statue cost less money, required less effort, and, ostensibly, came straight to the point, for indeed king was exactly what he said he was.

The problem with this is that the shortened version can easily be interpreted as an arrogant manifestation of self reghteousness, as if king was describing himself as a man of virtue, rather than offering an alternative version of someone else's comment.

And so, at great expense, after much adieu, the entire quote was sanded off, and the memorial became a blank slate. By the time everyone finishes haggling over the money and the words, one can scarcely imagine what might eventually appear on the freshly ensmoothened granite surface.

Thomas Jefferon once said "if the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates will divide society into two classes: wolves, and sheep".  Well, suppose, on some monument to jefferson, the first part of the quote were omitted, to save time, money, and space.

In such an instance jefferson would be presumed by tourists to have said "legislators and magistrates will divide society into two classes: wolves, and sheep", in which case said tourists would walk back to their tour buses, cameras no longer clicking, scratching their heads, msytified by the third american president's apparent tendency towards cynicism about democracy, and approval of anarchy.

The lesson is that when chiseling words into granite, get it right the first time, and either chisel the complete quote, or select another, shorter one. It saves time, money, and a helluve lotta angst.