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!
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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
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