Tom Glenn's Blog, page 28

Words, Words, Words (Again) (4)

Obviously, when it comes to words, I never quit. They fascinate me no end. So here are some more:

Precedent can be pronounced two different ways with two different meanings. When pronounced pree-SEE-dent, it means something that came before.  When pronounced PRESS-eh-dent, it means something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorize or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind. The word comes from the Latin “praecedere” and, later, the French “preceder,” both meaning to come before.

Next: mordant. It means incisive or keen and is often used to describe a sense of humor or wit. It comes from the French word “mordant,” which is the present participle of the verb “mordre,” to bite.

Now flummox. The word refers to a state of confusion resulting from failure. The word intrigues me because its origin is unknown. The best guess is that it comes from the word “flummock,” a mid-nineteenth century British verb meaning to make untidy or confuse.

That brings us to slog. Merriam-Webster says the origin of the word is unknown. It may be a variant of “slug,” meaning to remain idle out of laziness. The earliest recorded occurrence of the word meaning “hit hard,” probably a variant of slug, “to strike,” came in 1824; the first occurrence of its use to mean “walk doggedly” was recorded 1872.

Next: limbo. According to Oxford Languages, the word means the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants and of the just who died before Christ’s coming. I remember it from my childhood indoctrination in Catholicism to mean the eternal resting place for souls that were inadmissible to heaven but not condemned to hell. The word is used in ordinary conversation to refer to being stuck in a forgotten or ignored place, state, or situation. The origin of the word is the Latin from the medieval phrase “in limbo,” from the Latin word “limbus,” meaning hem, border, or limbo.

Now null.  It means having no legal or binding force, being invalid, or having or being associated with the value zero. The word’s origin is the Latin “nullus” meaning none. Its most common use that I am aware of is “null and void,” meaning having no force, binding power, or validity.

That’s enough for one day.

The English Language

My blog posts on words have led me to consider my native language, English, as a subject worthy of a post all to itself. I am fortunate that, as a writer, I am blessed with one of the richest, most variable languages ever created.

Some facts: English is the most spoken language in the world (if Chinese is divided into its various dialects). It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, English now has 171,476 words in active use, or some 220,000 if obsolete words are counted. If all vocabulary is included, the number goes up to an astonishing million-plus.

English is an Indo-European language in the West Germanic language group. Modern English is widely considered to be the lingua franca of the world and is the standard language in a wide variety of fields, including computer coding, international business, and higher education. Its origin notwithstanding, English is one of the richest languages in terms of words borrowed from other languages. French words from various periods of the development of French make up one-third of the vocabulary of English, thanks to the conquest of England by the French-speaking William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066. We also appropriate extensively from Latin and Greek. And it is commonplace for us to steal words from wherever we are operating. Example: During the Vietnam war, GIs invented the term “dinkey-dow” (a crazy person) from the Vietnamese điên cái đầu (crazy in the head). They also borrowed from World War II GIs the expression “number one” to mean the best, drawn from the Japanese ichiban. It also led to “number ten” meaning the worst, although, as far as I can tell, the Japanese never used the expression and the Vietnamese never did.

As a linguist in seven languages, I am continuously intrigued by modern English and its rich mixture of sources. And I’m fascinated by the fact that the more intellectual our conversation gets, the more our language borrows from other tongues. What more could a linguist and writer ask?

Supporting Biden

In reaction to yesterday’s listing of the reasons I’m opposed to Donald Trump, I’d like to enumerate all my incentives for favoring Joe Biden. But it’s not that simple.

First of all, while I support Biden and the Democrats and oppose Trump and the Republicans, I, like so many Democrats, am a long way from satisfied with the performance of the president and his supporters since he took office in 2021. Democrats are historically disunified and undisciplined where the Republicans stand solidly together. I wanted the Democrats to unite and pass laws for the good of the country. Instead, they argued among themselves and made little progress. Then, finally, earlier this month, they came together to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That measure will lower costs for families, combat the climate crisis, reduce the deficit, and, finally, ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

In fact, President Biden’s approval rating rose to 44 percent during the month of August in a new Gallup poll, up from just 31 percent in July, the Quinnipiac University poll found. The democrats have found a way to work together.

All that said, given Biden’s record of achievement, there is good reason to expect his popularity rating to be much higher. My guess is that many Democrats are disappointed that he has not achieved more. But look at what he has achieved in the face of the disaster left behind by Donald Trump:

—Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement.

—Re-engaged in the World Health Organization.

—Reversed Trump’s Muslim Ban.

—Introduced sweeping immigration reform.

—Reopened Obamacare enrollment.

—Ended Trump’s Transgender Military Ban.

—Unveiled the American Jobs Plan to create thousands of jobs.

—Sent stimulus checks to millions of hardworking families.

—Launched the Build Back Better Plan.

—Reopened Obamacare enrollment.

—Provided working families with stimulus.

—Provided Free COVID-19 tests to every American.

—Ended the Trump administration’s Muslim ban.

—Granted Social Security Stimulus Checks to Seniors.

That is no small list of achievements, even though, granted, the purpose of some of it was to undo disasters created by Trump. Given the level of accomplishment, I wonder why we don’t give Biden more credit.

Opposing Trump

I have opposed Donald Trump ever since he first appeared on our political scene. I am now more opposed to him than ever and sincerely hope that Americans will have the good sense to assure that he is never elected to office again. My Republican friends ask me why I am so anti-Trump. It’s because of all the things he has done. The following is only a partial list of offenses he committed while in office:

—He encouraged Russian interference in our elections.

—He threatened Ukraine to force it to dig up dirt on his political opponents.

—He cozied up to Kim Jung Un and other foreign adversaries and dictators.

—He abandoned our closest allies.

—He defunded the Post Office to prevent voting by mail.

—He proposed $30 billion in cuts to Social Security.

—He caged migrant children at the border.

—He attacked freedom of the press.

—He built a racist border wall.

—He incited the January 6th Capitol insurrection.

—He threatened state officials to force them to rig the 2020 election.

—He imposed a transgender military ban.

—He denied the severity of COVID-19.

—He maintains, even today, that his defeat in the 2020 election was due to fraud and that he is the legitimate president of the United States of America.

More than a hundred historians agree that Donald Trump was one of the worst presidents ever.

What more do I need to say?

The Mind

My blog on the human body brought a comment from a reader that made me sit up and take notice: “What about the mind?”

I’ve written here before about the human mind as distinct from the brain. Oxford Language defines the mind as the element of a person that enables him to be aware of the world and his experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.

The most important part of that definition to me is “to think.” My calling in life is to write, but before I can write I have to think. To think, I have to have a working brain. But the elements and scope of thinking range far beyond any functions we can identify in the human brain. So while the ability to think depends on the brain, it is the mind, not the brain, that does the thinking.

Even more remarkable is that thinking is noncorporeal, that is, it takes place outside of the realm of physical existence. That leads physics-based intellectuals to reject the existence of the mind and its counterpart, the soul. My suspicion is, though I can’t prove it, that the mind and the soul are different aspects of the same reality. And because of what I have experienced in my long and variegated life, I have no doubt that both exist.

So I end up certain that the mind exists, and even thrives, despite having no physical form. Every religion declares the existence of the nonphysical. I can’t claim religious beliefs, but where is it written that an agnostic can’t believe in the spiritual?

The Human Body

The human body is, to me, a miracle. Because of its exceptional qualities, I can extend my already long life by emphasizing healthy practices and diet. As a result, I get plenty of sleep (usually twelve hours each day), stick to strict diet (vegetables and fruits with meat used only for flavoring, and no sweets), and lift weights every other day for more than two hours. It works.

But the body itself is a miracle. We humans dominate the world because our bodies are superior to those of every other creature. Two of our exceptional features are our endlessly capable hands—which we use constantly for everything from feeding ourselves to writing to engaging in the arts—and, even more important, our brains, through which we do things that should be beyond us, like flying through the air and constantly advancing our civilization.

I know of no brief way to describe or define the human body. It’s a single structure, but it is made up of billions of smaller structures of four major kinds: cells, tissues, organs, and systems.

Taking only two of these, organs and systems, I learned through research that there are 79 known organs in the human body. These are connected or associated with ten major systems: skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and the reproductive.

The human body, in short, is of a complexity far beyond my meagre understanding. The best I can do in my humility is to care for it and give it its due in nourishment, rest, and exercise. Beyond that, the body is a gift to me that I did nothing to earn. Despite my avowed agnosticism, I am forced to thank the deity for my existence.

The body has served me splendidly thus far. Let’s see how long I can keep it going.

Four Guys

Every couple of months, I host a gathering of myself and three other men. Three of us are old enough to be retired, the fourth old enough to be a grandfather. We snack and drink wine and talk.

What makes the group fascinating to me is that two of us are progressive and the other two quite conservative. That leads to differing views on all manner of subjects. But all four of us agree on one issue: we don’t want to see Donald Trump as president again.

Within the group, I play my usual role of the introvert—I don’t say much but I listen attentively. Both conservative members are quite extroverted and dominate the conversation. The other progressive doesn’t appear to be at all reticent, but he limits his contributions to incisive and often final observations.

Although the two conservative members of the group often express viewpoints that I disagree with, I invariably learn from them. They are articulate, intelligent, and honest. I was surprised to discover that I could absorb so much new information and especially new ways of looking at things by giving close attention to men I differ with.

I remain grateful to my three partners: they are willing to teach me, and I am willing to learn.  

Book Sales in Manchester

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon yesterday hawking my books at Millers Picnic Grove in Manchester, Maryland, as part of the 2022 Day of Knowledge Book Fair. The purpose of the fair is primarily to give away books collected over the last year for that purpose. But along one wall of the hall were half a dozen of us authors happy to autograph our books for anyone who wanted to buy one.

As has happened before—I’ve been participating in the fair for a number of years—readers came up to my table to tell me how much they enjoyed books of mine they had bought in years before. Several expressed disappointment that my Friendly Casualties, previously an ebook now being brought out in hardcopy by Adelaide Books of New York, was not yet available. That was the only one of my six books they hadn’t read yet.

To say that talking to readers is gratifying is a gross understatement. Because all the stories I tell really did happen, readers know me at a level of intimacy beyond that of my own family. My Last of the Annamese, for example, is a fictionalized version of my escape under fire when Saigon fell in April 1975. That event changed my life in several ways, one being that I now suffer—and always will—from Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI). That led to another book, The Trion Syndrome, based on my struggle to PTSI.

So to me, the reaction of my readers is more a response to my life than a reflection on my art. And I am deeply grateful for their respect.

“Intelligence Failures”

The press during the past few days has been reporting on disbelief on the part of Ukraine and other U.S. allies of U.S. intelligence warnings that the Russians were about to invade Ukraine. The implication was that U.S. intelligence was suspect. My reading is that the distrust didn’t apply to intelligence but to U.S. dishonesty.

The U.S. has a history of being less than forthcoming with allies about what its intelligence said. The worst example was George W. Bush in 2002 declaring that Saddam Hussein had a “massive stockpile” of biological weapons. But as CIA Director George Tenet noted in early 2004, the CIA had informed policymakers it had “no specific information on the types or quantities of weapons agent or stockpiles at Baghdad’s disposal.” The “massive stockpile” was literally made up as an excuse to invade Iraq in 2003. The result was the death of more than 250,000 people.

I spent thirty-five years working in U.S. intelligence and observed repeatedly how politicians blamed intelligence for their own failures. Because intelligence depends on secrecy for its effectiveness, no one “in the business,” as we used to say, publicly contradicted the falsehood.

If politicians listened to and acted upon intelligence findings instead of criticizing intelligence experts, the country would be a lot better off.

Pro-Trump Republicans

I am astonished that anyone can continue to support Donald Trump after all he has done. When he was voted out of office, he incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, to stop Congress from proclaiming Biden’s victory. As many as ten people died as a result. This followed the unquestionably worst presidency in U.S. history.

But the Republicans have stood by Trump despite his crimes. Note the following: 121 House Republicans and 7 Republican Senators helped Trump try to overthrow our democracy by voting against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the face of overwhelming evidence that Biden won fair and square. And 43 Republicans voted to acquit Trump of all charges in the Senate impeachment trial. Republicans continue to support those who joined the insurrection. Five January 6th rioters have already been elected to office. At least 57 more people who were involved in the January 6th riots are running for office.

And now Republicans are supporting Trump for reelection in 2024—57 percent of Republicans want Trump to win, according to press reports. These same people called for defunding the FBI after the bureau’s search of Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago.

I am at a total loss to understand how anyone could support the worst president in our history who will almost certainly face criminal prosecution shortly. I can only conclude that his supporters agree with his racist views and his desire to keep the middle and lower classes powerless while enhancing the rule of the wealthy upper class. To me, that is anti-American.

So what is the future of the Republican party? My forecast is that in the long term it will cease to exist and that the Democratic party will split into two parties representing the progressives and the moderates. Or maybe the Republicans will prevail, and American democracy in all its imperfect glory will come to an end. Time will tell.