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Op-Ed

Using Plural Pronouns: Prelude to a Mess

[This is a longer version of a letter I sent to the Knoxville News Sentinel on 4 April 2022; they did not publish it. But they did publish a letter by someone who used plural pronouns to comment on the article below, someone who is apparently all for using whatever pronouns individuals declare they want others to use to refer to them. That is just madness.]

In “Amani Declines Plea Deal…” (3/29/22), the News Sentinel sacrifices clarity and informational value to political correctness by using plural pronouns to refer to a single person simply because he “uses they/them pronouns”. The story was confusing as to what happened to whom, given that there were two policemen and one arrestee, Amani. E.g., “Deputies handcuffed Amani and carried them facedown by their arms and legs into a holding room.”

One is sympathetic to a person’s desire to be seen as what he or she is, but it does a disservice to the rest of humanity to allow that person to dictate how he or she is to be referred to regardless of custom or grammatical expectations. Who is Amani to tell the rest of the world that plural pronouns must be used when referring to him? This is obviously a power move, not a logical correction of a past discrimination.

Long ago, language developed to include pronouns that distinguished actors by number and gender, i.e., singular vs plural and male vs female, the two most outstanding third-person signifiers in describing people and actions. (There could have been pronouns for old vs young, familiars vs strangers, etc., but that would have been unduly complicated.) Smooshing everything together into one pronoun set that serves for all (they, their) blurs meaning and makes reporting of any event or action difficult. Imagine the confusion in the interpretation of police reports if the police started to use one set of pronouns – there would be clarity only when the officer himself appeared on the stand to testify and when repeated questions by defense and prosecution established clearly how many did what.

News Sentinel folks are supposed to be giving light to the people, not making them say, “Huh?” Refusing to use the new pronoun set is not demonstrating prejudice against LGBTQ people; in fact, it is just the opposite because it is a tacit recognition of them as sensible people like everybody else, wanting clarity in language and so conceding an accommodation to themselves. A few militants should not be allowed to make things difficult for the great majority of other people.

To quote Joan Didion, ”I am committed to the idea that the ability to think for one’s self depends upon one’s mastery of the language”. (Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, p. 180)

Op-Ed

On Putin’s Vanity War

I thought that we were better than this.

When I was in school, we were taught history and especially the history of how war had shaped the world – the boundaries of nations, their governments, and their political and economic alliances. I always thought that the trajectory of civilization was upward and positive; certainly there were regressions and areas of backwards savagery, but overall there were fewer reasons to go to war, fewer instances of brutal takeovers of territory in the name of expanding an empire.

The Berlin wall and the eventual dissolution of the USSR were prime examples of this trend. East Germany became free and joined West Germany; Poland, Hungary, the Baltic republics, and the rest regained their long-lost sovereignty.

But now, for no reason that anybody can see except for his personal desire to “make Russia great again”, Vladimir Putin has decided to wage war on Ukraine in order to bring it back into the Russian orbit of influence. He obviously plans to subjugate the Ukrainian people with as much force and terror and he can bring to bear. When that is done, he will annex Ukraine or at least install puppet rulers who will toe the Moscow line. So somehow, despite the trend of of civilized behavior among nations, he has chosen to revert to an atavistic mode of operation in order to get what he wants.

The most striking image of the war for me is the man sitting at the foot of the gurney that holds the body of his teenaged son, with the father’s head bent down to the gurney. We can’t see the body, but a sheet was put over the boy when the blood was still wet, so that we can see the bright red blood staining the sheet. Losing your home is one thing, but losing your beloved child – the heart just aches to see that poor man sobbing. And the boy’s death was for nothing but to satisfy Putin’s ego.

It is thrilling to see how the rest of the world responded – well, the rest of the civilized world. Messages of support are being issued by most governments, aid of all kinds is being sent, even active military support is being contemplated by the Western nations. Most of all, ordinary people have rallied to express their support of the Ukrainians and their desires for an independent and peaceful life out from under the Russian heel. Even in Russia there have been protests (which of course have been put down with force and prison terms because freedom of speech is just a joke there). The Internet and the news media have greatly facilitated and accelerated this swell of opinion from all sides – a shining moment for the people working for these entities, God bless ‘em, especially for those who were killed reporting on the war.

Now, along with the yellow ribbons and the Stars and Stripes, the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag will be a symbol of the human aspiration to be free. I was startled when a friend concluded a phone conversation with me by saying, “Pray for Ukraine”, but I loved the sentiment. I hope that every free-minded person in the world is saying frequently to his family and friends “Pray for Ukraine”, “Free Ukraine”, and just “Ukraine!”

Those countries who have refused to condemn Russia include China, India, Pakistan, Belarus, North Korea, and Syria. Belarus and Syria, of course, are under Russia’s thumb; China, India, and North Korea have ambitions of their own to take or keep territory that contains people who want to be independent, so those three have no incentive to condemn Putin for the type of action that they themselves might take. Pakistan ostensibly wanted to refrain from taking sides, but this seems more a case of hedging their bets with regard to future handouts from Russia than a principled stance.

So good news and bad news. The bad news is the war, which has made Putin the current holder of the title Most Hated Man In the World. I heard on NPR something about Putin, apparently from back when Russia was re-subjugating Crimea. There is a Russian song about rape – I hope one that speaks of it in realistic and not laudatory terms – that Putin publicly quoted a line from. I can’t remember the exact line, but it ran something like this: “There is nothing you can do, my beauty, so do not resist”. What a striking illustration of his mindset his quoting of that line is!

But the good news is that people everywhere have been moved to support peace and self-determination. I hope that the US and the other countries in a position to support Ukraine in the war do not hesitate to pull out all the stops in order to check Putin and his armies. In the history of the world, this is clearly a war between good and evil going on. Like the Resistance heroes in Star Wars, we should not hesitate to step in and ensure that the good guys win. The good guys, of course, would be most of the people in the world.

Maybe after all, we “are better than this”: maybe it is clear that what most of the people in the world is not domination of other people, but just living in peace with them. As the late Rodney King once asked plaintively, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Op-Ed

A Comment About the Hypocrisy of Tennessee’s Redistricting Plan

[Below is the text of a brief letter of mine that was published in the Knoxville News Sentinel on 6 February 2022. The state redistricting plan was enacted by the legislature and it is widely regarded as favoring the legislative majority of Republicans over the minority of Democrats. It is thus considered to be a model of gerrymandering. Regarding my letter below, I do not really think of God as having a plan — to me that smacks too much of predestination. Instead, I tend to think of God in terms of his expectations for us humans, or as I put it, I think that God just wants us to get with the program (of caring for the sick and the poor, making useful scientific discoveries, educating our young, etc.). But I used the phrase “God’s plan” because that would be a way of speaking that Christians understand. I hope that those in the legislature who pushed through and voted for the plan are aware of how hypocritical they are.]

In thinking about the proposed state redistricting plan, I was reminded of the those who visited the holy family after Jesus was born.

First came the humble shepherds, who were graciously received by Mary and Joseph. Then came the distinguished wise men from the East: Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. Balthasar, of course, was black. Mary and Joseph graciously received him too and accepted his gift. So it seems that inclusivity has been part of Christianity from the beginning.

Now, most of the Republicans in the Tennessee House and Senate seem to be Christians, especially Evangelical Christians. I say to them, look to your consciences – and ask yourselves if your redistricting plan is really consistent with God’s great plan.

Op-Ed

Stop the Stupidmusic Already!

I have noticed something aurally annoying on my local NPR station (WUOT, Knoxville, Tennessee): as the local news announcer is giving news headlines or describing upcoming programs, a musical background is playing behind him or her. This was done in the past as well, but back then the music was very muted and the announcer could clearly be heard over it. Now, however, the music is often so loud as to compete with the announcing and it even overpowers the voice.

I have normal hearing even at my age and I seldom have to ask anybody to repeat what he has said. But I often have trouble making out what the local NPR announcer is saying when the background is so loud. I suspect that many people have this problem.

Why on earth would the background be so jacked up? Does the sound engineer fancy himself a DJ, or is this one of those nutty corporate decisions designed to lure younger listeners? I would bet that NPR has few younger listeners to be attracted, while the older, established listeners are being turned off by this practice.

Lately the national NPR segments sometimes also have loud musical backgrounds and even some of the national and local television news occasionally have them. So loud, obtrusive backgrounds seem to be a trend across the country.

We are not talking about classical music. Once in a while the background is indeed classical, but even then the way-front-and-center sawing of all those violins and the pounding of the timpanis is overwhelming to the ear. But most often, the background is what I call contemporary crap, with the bass and the drums amped up. Since the announcer is most often male and has a lower-register voice, the heavy low sounds are even more likely to drown him out. My husband is really ticked off about this because he has a hearing loss in the higher range and depends on what he can hear in the lower range in order to make out what is said.

I call the pointless/meaningless/useless background music “Stupidmusic” (all one word, with the accent on the first syllable). I hope that the station managements will soon wake up and smell the coffee: nobody outside of the show people thinks that having a rah-rah background is stylish and most often it just gets in the way of the listener’s comprehension of the news. Which, if you think about it, is the whole point of having a news program in the first place.

Op-Ed

The Knoxville Baseball Stadium Is Moving Ahead, Darn It

[This is my latest letter to the editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel. I submitted it on 18 November 2021 and it has not been published so far. Curiously, hardly any letters on the subject of the publicly funded but privately controlled stadium-to-be have been published. I would bet that that is not because people are not submitting them. There have, however, been various op-eds talking up the stadium…..]

The Sports Authority, Knox County, and Knoxville in quick succession approved the construction of a baseball stadium for Mr. Boyd. Not surprising: it was clear from the beginning that the fix was in. The politically savvy Mr. Boyd lined up influential supporters among legislators, city councilpeople, etc., long before the stadium plan was revealed to the public.

Per the News Sentinel, control of construction, including design aspects, seems to be entirely in Mr. Boyd’s group’s hands, not in those of the city, county, or Sports Authority, and the construction contract is no-bid. The SA appears to exist only to rubberstamp the plans, sign checks, and provide cover. Mr. Boyd promises all kinds of jobs and tax revenue, but who will control the choice of, e.g., the food vendors at the stadium? Who gets the house cut of what they take in? Surely it should be the city and county (who will own the stadium), not Mr. Boyd, but nobody will be surprised to find the team getting a large cut.

As to other activities at the stadium, does anybody doubt that a long-scheduled children’s event or soccer game would be cancelled if the Smokies made it into the playoffs and needed the stadium?

News Sentinel reporting on the cost seesaws between $65M and $75M. There has been no mention of the $20M for infrastructure for a long time and little mention of the $13M the state put into the Sports Authority to get things started. This loosey-goosey treatment of the potential costs is very suspicious.

Why doesn’t Mr. Boyd build the stadium himself? Could it be because paying rent limits his exposure should the projected revenues and taxes not pan out? Supposedly he will pay for any overruns, but we cynics doubt that he will or that the project will eventually pay for itself.