It seems that some of my readers have reacted very negatively to my article “Where Have All The Politicians Gone?” (http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Where-have-all-the-politicians-gone-20121231) of a few days ago, saying that it was much too long and seemed to contain overly much of the contents of the Oxford Dictionary.
Mea culpa. I am sorry.
But I have a problem, and it is thus.
Where people’s lives are concerned - where people are duped; where people are robbed; where people are exploited; where people are disenfranchised; where people are deprived of a voice; where people are ill-informed and in need of additional perspectives; where people are silenced because they are fearful or ignorant; where people fail to find or give leadership worthy of their hopes for themselves and their children.
These things are important to me and sometimes I feel moved to try, in my own small way, to contribute to highlighting and addressing some of the issues.
But, where real people are concerned, their problems can, occasionally, be quite complex and it is difficult to reduce those complexities to a handful of words or a concise sound-byte or two. Complex problems sometimes need complex descriptions and analysis; often a bit of time is required to fully digest commentary on such problems and – sometimes – big words of more than one or two syllables each need to be employed. The unconsidered linguistic and conceptual reduction of people’s complex problems – especially by way of sweeping labels - can sometimes reduce the people themselves to something less than human with no dignity; mutual respect then goes out of the window.
But, yes, I could do better.
By way of redress and apology, what follows is an attempt on my part to simplify the problematic article in order to better address the concerns of those who have trouble with my writing style, vocabulary and syntax. It may also be of some assistance to anyone out there having an attention span of less than a carrot-stick at a slimmer’s convention.
Here goes…
Ug. Grunt sniff. Ugggh! Biff!! Hrumph…glhp. Wow! Zap!! Ugga ugga zoop. Wida juf foogle?
Booga swax hip! Zoop zoom whiz!!!! Ug. WTF!?!? Growwwllll!
OMG! Jiba oopis tango delta ugga ugga choof. Klap! Klop! Ding!!!! Ooof! Grunt.
Ug, ugga hubba jubba. CHILLAX!
There, I hope that helps. I’m sure you’ll let me know if you need further clarification.
Ha! Ha! Thanks for all your comments, folks.
Have yourselves a great 2013!
Rick.
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