WORDS MATTER/
November 5, 2007 “Imagine, if you will, a world in which the right-wing pundit Ann Coulter were not a grating opportunist who said horrible things on air for her own personal gain. Imagine—and it's a stretch—that she occasionally said something interesting or at least worth considering. Then her recent comments on Donny Deutsch's cable show might have generated a useful conversation instead a lot of name-calling and Scripture quoting. Here is what happened: Coulter and Deutsch were bantering about Israel and Iran, when Coulter used the phrase that has gotten so much attention. Christians, she said, ‘just want Jews to be perfected.’
‘Wow, you didn't really say that, did you?’ asked Deutsch.
‘Yes, that's what Christianity is,’ Coulter answered. Later in the program, Deutsch called Coulter "anti-Semitic," and in the days that followed, the Anti-Defamation League condemned Coulter's statement and the National Jewish Democratic Council called on news organizations to quit inviting Coulter on their programs. On the blogs, Christians alternately signaled their support of or opposition to Coulter's statement with Bible verses and profanity.”(Newsweek, November 5, 2007)
We may think our words don’t matter, but they do. Ann Coulter makes a very good living using them to hurt other people and other groups of people. For those of us with a disability, we know how much words mean. For people from a minority religion, color, or nationality they know how much words matter.
When the old adage “actions speak louder than words” was given birth, it was not the age of mass communication. A political blog in today’s world can have more influence than even a major march on Washington, DC.
My wife can do a hundred good actions, but break my spirit with a single word. I am not trying to say actions are not important. I am trying to get you to think about how much what you say and write matters.
What you don’t say and write matters too. When I lived on the streets on New York City (or any of the other cities where I found myself without housing) panhandling (begging for money), I would have loved to have heard a kind word. I would not have cared what personal faith the person had if any. I wanted and needed more than a kind word. I was able to panhandle quarters, but I seldom heard a kind word.
How are we to DREAM THE DREAM ONWARD
