I read this morning, actually I read this a few days ago, but was reminded this morning that:
Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden terms at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden terms are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
What a reminder this is of the perceived power of words. I don’t think trump wrote these rules as his life seems to have been a pilgrimage involving a search for the three Ps — power, prosperity and
p——. It also is a reminderer of how politicians play by some of the rules set by their base — perhaps one should say seem to play by those rules. Tell them they got a tax cut — while behind the scenes cracking up and saying but don’t tell them not to spent all $50 of it in one place.
Vulnerable refers to the fact humans are susceptible to being hurt or wounded. We are vulnerable. Every one of us, though we all pretend to be otherwise at certain times in our lives. We are vulnerable to senescence, death, disease, injury, pain, depression, sadness, poverty, hunger, cold. The list could go on forever. How strange it is to try to erase that particular word from our language. The powers that be (short lived one has to hope), of course, don’t want the CDC and one can assume the NIH, and the INS, etc. to refer to vulnerable populations, to the disparities in health and social justice. They want to erase the entire population of refugees who have suffered from depravities created by men who are even more cruel (perhaps) than the ones in power in the US. They want us to forget the poor, sad, depressed, wounded and even those who have been shot and killed by the very guns the NRA pays our politicians to protect.
Entitlement can be read several ways — we are (or once were) entitled to equal protection under the law. We are entitled to equality, which we have never even witnessed. We are (or were) entitled to life (although the NRA, apparently, has more rights to our lives than our most vulnerable have. Liberty? Well, we are free to suffer, be sad, be hungry, but each day there are more restrictions on our ability to try to criticize — or speak truth to — power. It can mean that people like the trumpettes — trumps kids — are entitled to things we cannot ever even dream of having. I am sure the powers that be like that form of entitlement. What they don’t like are the entitlements we were promised by our forefather. Those entitlements apparently are now not to be discussed.
Diversity, transgender — those words refer to members of our own world who once were given certain inalienable rights. Rights that now are being taken away from our sisters and brothers — from people we love.
Fetus, of course, is an appeal to the anti abortion crowd. That group of rich Americans who never have known what it is like to struggle to feed, clothe and shelter a child. Who lived in safe neighborhoods and never were terrified if their child wanted to go out to play because of the violence that surrounds their home. Who never worked three and four jobs to try to make ends meet and still tried to raise a child. Who have never faced a pregnancy when they knew they did not have the power or strength or resources for another child — and would lose their jobs if they got pregnant even if they were married.
The last two are attacks on science — attacks aimed at protecting lies they want to protect — lies that claim we can put anything into our water and air and birdies without facing consequences. Lies that claim guns don’t kill and that we are not selling assault weapons to those we should be caring for because of their mental health problems. Lie after lie, now protected because the library at Alexandria was again burned.
Enough is enough. we need honorable and intelligent people in congress. We need to weed out the fools, knaves, liars, cheats, philanders, and greedy — those who are willing to punish the “vulnerable” merely because they are vulnerable. Enough is enough.
