Different view of the Constitution

To The Editor:     
The current attitude that the U.S. Constitution is a living document, and by this, the word twisters mean subject  “to their current interpretation” is an obvious example of he who defines, controls. Subtle, but relentless, propaganda has done much to undermine the meaning of words. The reason you see so many older people criticizing things today is that they have the advantage of experiencing America before this country’s down slide. America today is crammed full of people with excuses for everything. Previously, people held a strong dislike for any influence, which tore asunder tradition or interfered with a way of life. A society, which refuses to think for itself and becomes governed by a syndicate of word definers, allows the definers to gain control. Political correctness is all about word taboo and word redefining.

In a recent Catskill Mountain News letter to the editor, a writer expressed the opinion that the title,  “Tea Party” suggested, by implication, that those who do not embrace the Tea Party’s philosophy are less patriotic and then enforced it with a quote from a Sarah Palin speech - “it is great to be with true Americans” that implies in his mind “that patriotism of those who are not in her “camp” “is open to question.”

This is the writer’s opinion and is neither right nor wrong, as no opinion ever is, even though it seems to this reader, to be framed in convoluted reasoning. If, for example, I attend a flying saucer enthusiast meeting and voiced that “it was great to be among true believers” am I, by implication, then guilty of inferring, that all others that do not attended or do not believe in flying saucers are somehow being put down.

Communication is about the exchange of value judgments and ideas, and if the thoughts of one are changed into words which mean something else to the receiver, then all that transpired was only an exchange of noise.  To communicate we need to speak the same language with agreed upon definitions. Otherwise society is in a position of everyone babbling to one another, using what appears to be a common language, with the result that no one knows what the other fellow is talking about.

The Tea Party is a grass roots movement that is gathering together those citizens who are unhappy that they have been given short shrift by the national political parties and White House leadership that, they charge, is not listening to the voice of the people. In any sane society they would be applauded instead of attacked and castigated with patently unfounded accusations. We, as a nation, are in need of those who are not in lockstep with the “powers that be” but rather see things through the eyes of the ordinary citizen.

Stuart E.Buswell,
Margaretville