By THE PANTHER EDITORIAL BOARD
Words are mile markers in the history of human life. They represent the attitudes of the times – from abbreviating everything because communication has become so fast paced to refraining from using derogatory racial terms as social interactions mature.
Words are chock full of history and can even be seen as the war memorials of society, reminding us of the horrors that can happen when a word takes too much power.
Certain words have been relegated to the backburner of the English language because of the offensive connotation they carry. Today’s buzzword, the one politically correct activists want to ban, is “retard.”
But any whiff of a “ban” on any word just does not sit well with us. With all of the background and connotations to words, to ban one word is to ban a multitude of meanings. It is not constitutional and it is not right.
That said, it is not banning words from a group level but an individual responsibility for word choice that should be encouraged.
Every sentence each of us utters is an extension of our self. The words we choose are not like the clothing we choose to wear, or color we choose to dye our hair or the odor that we emanate when we have not taken a shower. Those can be misinterpreted, beyond our control. But words are different. With words, we have the ability to make clear what we are trying to convey.
Words are important because they demand that we make a conscious decision about how we use them.
There is an argument that using derogatory terms in a humorous context dilutes the derogatory connotations the words have attained. But humor does not lessen the hurt. There are simply some things that should not be joked about.
It is inevitable in life that you will offend some people and it is impossible to instruct people to live their lives without uttering offenses. But it is our human duty to mitigate our offenses to others by considering the consequences of our words before we say them.
Words are chock full of history and can even be seen as the war memorials of society, reminding us of the horrors that can happen when a word takes too much power.
Certain words have been relegated to the backburner of the English language because of the offensive connotation they carry. Today’s buzzword, the one politically correct activists want to ban, is “retard.”
But any whiff of a “ban” on any word just does not sit well with us. With all of the background and connotations to words, to ban one word is to ban a multitude of meanings. It is not constitutional and it is not right.
That said, it is not banning words from a group level but an individual responsibility for word choice that should be encouraged.
Every sentence each of us utters is an extension of our self. The words we choose are not like the clothing we choose to wear, or color we choose to dye our hair or the odor that we emanate when we have not taken a shower. Those can be misinterpreted, beyond our control. But words are different. With words, we have the ability to make clear what we are trying to convey.
Words are important because they demand that we make a conscious decision about how we use them.
There is an argument that using derogatory terms in a humorous context dilutes the derogatory connotations the words have attained. But humor does not lessen the hurt. There are simply some things that should not be joked about.
It is inevitable in life that you will offend some people and it is impossible to instruct people to live their lives without uttering offenses. But it is our human duty to mitigate our offenses to others by considering the consequences of our words before we say them.
By THE PANTHER EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITORIAL | Posters on campus must be approved by A.S. But regarding its own campus-wide election, it could not get the word out to the people. Read full Editorial >> 
