Month: October 2002

  • Today's Peeve


    I've always enjoyed words, like most Xangans, I suppose (why else would we be here?)  But it bugs me when people cheapen a powerful word.


    Two examples came to mind today:


    Nazi/Hitler. 

    Usage I came across:  "My boss hates it when we mess around on the Internet on company time.  She's such a Nazi about it!  She's f-ing Hitler!"
    Now, come on.  Hitler and the Nazis he was in charge of killed and tortured thousands upon thousands of people in the most horrible ways we can think of.  Can your boss really hold a candle to that?  Think twice before calling someone Hitler or a Nazi... if they're of German or Jewish descent, this could be an especially sensitive thing to say. 


    Rape.


    Usage I came across:  "I moved out with 10 months left on my lease, and the complex is trying to charge me all this money.  They're raping me!"
    I've broken leases, and I've been raped, and I promise, they weren't similar situations.  I don't know what percentage of rape survivors cringe when they hear the word used this way, but I sure do.  My apartment complex never drug me to an empty building during a blizzard, disconnected the phone line and held a knife to my throat while violating me.


    You


    Granted, this one is a lot more subjective, but it's just a personal thing, not really a definition-based thing.


    Usage I came across:  "When you're dead, you'll resemble rotting flesh."
    Once we die, I don't think that our bodies are US anymore.  They're the house we lived in, sure... but what makes you love your loved ones ceases to live in the flesh house once they pass on.  Who they are is still with us, and with everyone they came into contact with, and with everyone that will encounter them in some way after their body has ceased to function.


    I equate it to this:  If my best friend moved away, I wouldn't go to the house he used to live in to think about him or visit him.  He's not there any more, and it just wouldn't be much fun.  I guess this also explains why I don't visit cemeteris, or worry much whether a person chooses to be cremated or buried.  It's their business, and who they were to me isn't dependent on it.



    Ok, enough about me.  What about you?

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