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Words In Wonderland

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2007

One of the memorable moments in Alice's journey through Wonderland is the twisted conversation in which Humpty Dumpty declares, 'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'

When Alice questions whether you can make words mean so many different things, the old egg replies, 'The question is which is to be master - that's all.' Alice 'was too much puzzled to make any other remark.'

I sometimes feel that we have landed in a linguistic Wonderland where people in power think they can make words mean whatever they want. Take the word 'torture.' When Judge Michael Mukasey was asked if water-boarding is a legal procedure, the attorney general nominee replied, 'If water-boarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.'

The operative word is 'if,' because Mukasey follows an attorney general who redefined torture so narrowly that it can exclude almost anything. When I hear President Bush declare that the United States does not torture, I feel the eerie echo of former President Clinton saying, 'It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.'

I get the same eerie feeling with the term 'values voter.' The not-so-subtle implication is that voters who do not share the narrowly-defined values of folks on the 'religious right' hold no values at all. But no single slice of the electorate holds the lease on values. Affordable health care, a just economy, creating an alternative to war, educating the next generation, protecting the environment, confronting global poverty and AIDS are all values upon which voters vote. In the end, we are all 'values voters.'

The point is that words matter; they mean something. Debasing the value of words undermines trust and leaves us 'too much puzzled' to make any other remark.

And that, unfortunately, is exactly what some folks in the business of redefining words would like us to do.

Jim Harnish is pastor of Hyde Park United Methodist Church.Keyword: Community Columnists, to read other columns by the Tribune's board.

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