Use the Right Word, Please

It has been a while since I last
posted. It all started with last winter and the extra snow. It seems like toward
the end of it I was spending all my time either moving snow, preparing to move
snow or recovering from moving snow. Then spring came with it’s planting work.
Then a technical glitch with my laptop. You get the idea. But, enough whining.
Without further ado, my next post:

Many of my previous posts involve me
commenting on recent news items, and I swear I will get back to that. However,
I need to get a couple of things off my chest. It bugs me when people misuse
this beautiful language of ours, either by design or ignorance. So, I wanted to
clear up a couple of things.

First, is misuse of the word “mantra”.
A mantra is a word or phrase that is repeated as part of a meditative practice.
It is NOT a word or phrase chosen
as encapsulating the beliefs or ideals guiding an individual, family, or
institution. THAT is a “motto”. I have lost count of how many times I
have heard people saying mantra when they should have been saying motto. Perhaps
as a former mindfulness teacher I am overly sensitive to this issue. But, please
people, let’s start using the right word. It’s just less confusing for
everyone.

My second complaint is misuse of the
word “litigation”. When congress made an official request to the IRS for Donald
Trump’s income tax returns and the IRS refused (in violation of the law, by the
way), countless Republicans said, “This issue has already been litigated by the
American people. He didn’t release his returns before the election and won
anyway. Clearly, they just don’t care.”

“Litigation” is a process involving a
court of law that uses evidence to establish the truth of a matter. You can’t
litigate with an election. As we all know, people don’t always use logic when
deciding who to vote for. To be fair, I will say that the first person to use “litigation”
in this way probably intended it as a metaphor. But I would guess most of the
people who repeated it didn’t see it that way.

When Congress makes an official
request to the IRS for a person’s income tax return, they are required by law
to comply. This can and should be litigated in a court of law, but it can’t be
litigated by an election.