Words. The Obama administration has belatedly come to realize they cannot long continue using words to obfuscate and confuse. The other day someone actually uttered the forbidden word “terrorist”, though of course it was hoped the terrorist would turn out to be a right wing tea party zealot. When it turned out the Times Square bomber was a Pakistani trained by al Qaeda, Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security, told reporters the system worked because the bomb failed to explode. Words like terror and Islam and terrorist are not to be uttered, lest those who are determined to kill us take offense. A few days ago Attorney General Eric Holder, in a congressional hearing, was asked if he thought the terror acts were done by Islamic radicals, and Holder refused to answer, saying that such acts have many reasons for happening. They’re only words, and words are all they have, to take our hearts away. 

 

 

Words have meanings, someone said

Though not so much today

We listen to our betters speak

And don’t know what they say

With many meanings different now

From what they were of yore

One cannot tell if afterwards

Now means what came before

Where once was Mrs or just Miss

We now must call her Ms

We speak in riddles to confuse

Who knows what is is is

Big Sis claims victory when a

Car bomb fails to explode

The President blames it on Them

Who we all know is code

For right wing zealots who drink tea

And wish to do him ill

And sees not folks who work real hard

To kill us and they will