A Moment With Murryum

  Language is so meticulous. Some people ponder for hours, crafting the perfect speech, planning every word, every hand gesture, perfecting tone, volume, rate, when to smile, when to look somber, and when to pause. While others simply blurt out everything that pops into their heads and only really realize what they have said after the fact. But I am generalizing here, because along with these groups there is also another group of people that switch back and forth between the two. I'd categorize myself in this group, in some situations I am highly meticulous and in some I'm not.           It's interesting, how either so much or so little thought or effort can be put into speech. We alter the way we talk depending on who we are talking too, where we are, how we feel, how the other person feels, and context. A lot of important factors we use to determine the tone that we will use, or whether we should crack that risky joke are all factors that we must sense ...

         Something that's always made my blood boil is when people think they can speak for others. When people believe that they know exactly how the other person feels, or should feel, and their word is final. No matter how the person who may have actually been hurt feels.            The Word Police by Michiko Kakutani is a prime example. She believes that just because people go overboard with some aspects of political correctness, all of it should end. That we shouldn't worry about offending people, because at the end of the day, they're just being petty.         One has to understand that the root of " shirts, bumper stickers, and buttons" ( Kakutani, 2) that don the "politically correct" way to refer to things is not hyperbole. These things exist because of ignorance. Someone's feelings were hurt to start everything, and people decided it should be avoided in the future at all costs. I agree that s...