Word: affirmation
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...people want control of their own utterances, they obviously resent feeling gagged when they want to speak. What I think political correctness should be trying to do is to make people more conscious of what they say. Language, after all, is power; as a medium of communication, it can affirm or degrade the humanity of others. If someone does call me a "Chink," I can put their language through the litmus test of political correctness and recognize it as degrading. Recognizing that language can be used to strip others of their humanity, political correctness only codifies this recognition into...
Optimists and reformers already foresee laws that will undo the Supreme Court's Paula Jones decision and protect sitting Presidents from lawsuits; revisions of the independent-counsel law to preserve its value but limit its potential for abuse; even laws that would affirm a privilege for Secret Service agents and government lawyers. Clinton's successors, if they are men or women of unimpeachable character and conduct, can go a long way to set things right. Reagan was the latest President to test the resilience of the office: following the disgrace of Nixon and the disappointments of Ford and Carter, books...
...cauldron of ridicule from some of my black schoolmates under segregation, then immediately thereafter remain secure in that identity during my years at an all-white seminary, I had few racial-identity problems," Thomas declared last week. "I knew who I was and needed no gimmicks to affirm my identity. Nor, might I add, do I need anyone telling me who I am today...
...toot my way over to audiology for a hearing test, a waste of my time, I expect, because I am certain my hearing is excellent. In the soundproof booth where different tones are squeaked through earphones, I dutifully push the button at each to affirm for audiologist Mary Ann Karnuta that I have heard the sound. Two minutes later, I am incredulous when she shows me a printout of my responses. Having failed to hear a range of high-toned pitches, I learn I have mild symptoms of presbycusis--"old-age hearing," Karnuta informs me--caused by gradual loss...
...Every time you affirm the dignity and the rights of individual citizens as the central base of the whole structure [through the practice of law], then you are spelling out the ways in which individual rights are affirmed and protected," he says...