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Riddle: How Are Freedom of the Press, Wordiness and Christmas Connected? by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

This article was written in 2017 not for the recent Coronavirus.


I love to share writing tips, marketing secrets and editing aids,but I’m adding something new to my fave list. Something more serious. It’s freedom of the press.

So, what inspired me? 

Well, a couple of months ago the White House issued a list of words that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shouldn’t use. It bothered me then and it bothers me even more now that we just experienced a near epidemic of flu in this country! (My husband and I are both part of that epidemic. Neither of us has had the flu or a cold for over 40 years and this one has been a doozy!)

The LA Times(Tuesday, Jan 16, page B2) used this as a lead for the story:
“’It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.’ George Orwell writes in the fifth chapter of his dystopian novel, 1985.”

I love the novel the Times chose to quote, but I have always been too optimistic to give its dystopian theme much credence. And now here we are in the middle of a dystopian censorship if there ever was one! Four public health experts from Emory University in Atlanta tell us that if the CDC actually obeys the recent order to avoid certain words and phrases it would “squander [the agency’s] limited resources.” Other agencies were also “forbidden” to use words like “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science based.” In some cases, the administration’s budget office suggested alternative terms. You may think these terms quite clunky if you’re the kind of writer who works hard at avoiding wordiness.  

Then in a recent Sierra Club magazine (sources docount for us writers!), I learn that the US climate office was told not to use the terms “climate change,” “emissions reduction,” or “Paris agreement.” Seems someone is trying to control what we write about. 

These commandments from a government who should understand that freedom of the press is a vital part of our constitutions sounds like a violation of both freedom of speech and freedom of the press (the government does publish tons and tons of stuff!) to me. Times also reported that gagging like this also violates The Plain Writing Act of 2010 that requires all federal agencies to “improve the effectiveness and accountability to the public by promoting clear Government communication that the public can understand and use.”

We writers should be thankful for that “plain writing” encouragement! Still, too few in the government are paying attention to it.  Luckily, the CDC seems to be ignoring these new guidelines limiting the words our agencies can use for now. But as writers, we should all be worried—even on the lookout—for anything that limits our use of words. 

As an example, we’ve been encouraged to use only Merry Christmas as a holiday greeting for decades. I’d hate to lose alternative greetings. As a courtesy, I’ve always reserved Merry Christmas for people I know to be Christian, Happy Hanukkah for those I know to be Jewish. Have a great Kwanza for the black people I know celebrate it. Ramadan? Well, I’ve never had occasion to use it (sorry!), but if I did I would be equally careful to abide by the traditions of the person involved. 

There are others, but generally, “Happy holidays,” is a polite way to be inclusive when we don’t know the situation or do know that in a diverse population we may be addressing a few people who are members of each group with a few atheists to boot. That is a very small example of how important words are, and how important it is we have access to all the ones we find in a dictionary (and some we don’t). For clarity. And so that we can. . . ahem, obey the Plain Writing Act. Now there’s a government proclamation I can get my teeth, molars, and incisors into! Before you get too blasé, be sure to revisit the date that act was written! 2010! 


MORE ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER





Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of "Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" and was given her community's Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.




Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi award-winning poet, fiction writer, and author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers
Website: https://howtodoitfrugally.com
Twitter: @frugalbookpromo
Facebook: http://facebook.com/carolynhowardjohnson
Blog: http://SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com
Featured Author at bit.ly/NonfictionAuthorAssocFeaturedAuthor 


Amazon Profile - bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile
Twitter - @FrugalBookPromo


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