It’s November already, this year is flying by from my perspective. However, this election cycle seemed to have lasted forever, and I for one, am happy it’s over.
I have no idea how things went as I write this, but I hope my candidates did well, and if they didn’t, I will accept the win regardless of the outcome and I hope you do too.
Now, on to what is really grinding my gears: word policing the English language. Recently it has come to my attention that we should no longer use the term “senior citizen” to address our elderly population. No wait, scratch that, you can’t say elderly anymore either. “Aging adults” or “older people” is the preferred nomenclature for our times, from what I have read.
Recently, the Journal of American Geriatrics Society signaled their intention to try and “Reframe Aging” and apparently that means removing the term senior. Somehow, I find the term geriatric to be demeaning as well, but hey, it’s their club and they should be able to name it whatever they like, right?
Many other words are changing in our language due in part to technology such as the # sign, commonly known as pound, but now is called hashtag. I have no idea when or why this changed, but it’s a lesson I will likely never forget.
I understand the language has been evolving since the day we stopped grunting and started using words to describe things, and will continue long after my soon-to-be senior citizen body has been laid to rest. The question is this, why must the older generations change to fit what younger generations deem proper language? I’m of the opinion that the more youthful of our population should focus on changing the generations they are raising and leave us old curmudgeons alone. We are too busy trying to figure how to operate our smartphones, smart TVs, learning the internet is NOT case sensitive, and that we don’t need to type “www” when entering a website.
Neil Kisiela please give the office a call, I have someone trying to reach you.
Thank you for picking up this week’s issue. Enjoy! ~ djm