The Brussels Post, 1975-07-30, Page 2SicrrY Afle
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Shadows from the past
Amen
by Karl Schuessler
Chairperson.
Now how does that word grab you?
It doesn't put the bite on me at all. It
downright unhinges me. Especially when it
refers to my piano teacher. That's the way
they wrote her up in the newspaper. They said
my teacher was the chairperson of our spring
recital.
Now I have nothing against a chair. Or a
person.But put them together and what do
you have? Blah
What's wrong with that word chairman?
And in deference to the ladies, If they
insist--and more and more of them are
insisting--chairwoman.
Now I realize. Chairwoman gets awfully
close to charwoman. And we're in trouble
again. With a drop of the "i" we've got the
woman back down on her knees and scrubbing
florrs. We've turned her into a menial again.
But please. Not chairperson. The main job
of that word is to define a role -- not the
gender of a sex.
It's almost as bad as the time when the
librarian of a university sent a letter out to all
the new students. He welcomed them all into
the Wonderful world of library by saying
"Dear Person".
"Dear" is so affectionate. "Person" so
neutral. He Might as well said "Dear
Number" or "Dear It".
You don't go around talking to a vague
generalized person You talk to a body.
Somebody. A him or a her. 'You become
specific. The more specific the better.
If that librarian used the all time favourite
"Dear Student", he'd wind up more
personable and pleasing, Arid if he really
wanted to go all out, he might have said
"Dear Ones",
But no, dear librarian, not "Dear Person".
And no., dear reporter, 'not chairperscin. Stop
neutering all those words.
Oh, I know why we're using all these
altered words. It's an' offense to the ladies.
They say they're fed ..up with a vocabulary
that's male dominated. They claim men have
used language to subjugate women. And they
point to the obvious.ChairMAN. MANkind.
HuMANity. MAN-made. MAN-hour.
But then there's the insidious ones. Why
HIStory? Why not HERstory? And come to
think of it, she does have her side of it.
Why BOYcotting? Why not girlcotting?
And why do we by high BOYS and lowBOYS
--those chests of drawers found in the very
best of homes
Why do we put up our feet on an ottoMAN?
Why do we play a MANdolin?
Why do all the young people keep on saying
"Yeah, man, Yeah, man" even when they re
talking to a woman?
I can see what all this is leading to. I can see
what's going to happen in the church. The
Children of Israel will no longer eat Manna in
the Wilderness. It will be Womaima.
We'll be praying to Our Mother who art in
heaven,..thy queendom come. We'll believe
in the Trinity of Mother, 'Daughter and Holy
Spirit.
And pretty soon clergy women will serve
the chtirch.
And we'll no longer sing hymns. We'll sing
hers.
And from all this, I pray, "Good Ladyi
deliver us.''
ESTABLISHED
1872
gj3russels Post
BRUSSELS
WEDNESDAY, JULY-30, 1975
ONTARIO
Serving Brussels and, the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy • Editor , Dave Robb - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association.
Subscriptions.(in advance) Canada $6.00 a year, Others
CONA a. $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each.
VC, RIFIE0
America's idealism
1111111111M1b.
lingers on
It is a difficult time for the United States.
Washingtdn's policies in, IndO-Chiria have failed
miserably. The dollar has not recovered from its two
devaluations.. Unemployment is high and workers
are restive. For millions of households, inflation has
eroded purchasing power to a frightening degree.
Yet those who derive some kind of perverse
pleasure by watching the discomfiture of the U.S.
giant -- and indeed there are many in different parts
of the world -- should watch their step. Now is not the
time to fling insults at the United. States.
It was Thomas Woodrow Wilson who said in
September of 1919 that "America is the only
idealistic nation in the world." Clearly, Woodrow
Wilson was carried away by his patriotism that day
more than half a century ago -- for what he said was
no more true then, in the days after World War I,
than it is today.
But there was meaning behind that statement, for
essentially the United States is a nation with much--
idealism, and despite the debacle in Indo-China,
despite the unhealed wounds of Watergate, that
idealism lingers on in these tense and troubled
times. •
For Canadians, there are inherent dangers in a
floundering America. Not only does distress south of
the border bring out the worst in some Canadians --
those right-wing nationalists always seeking to
disrupt Canadian-U.S. friendship; a fruStrated
America can do irreparable harm to Canada. To
maintain their high living standards,Canadians need
a prosperous', healthy United States which is now --
and which will remain -- our most important trading
partner by far.
One must never forget that • the United States,
despite the many recent errors made by some of its
political, diplomatic and military leaders, despite the
highly questionable over-reaction in Cambodia in
mid-May, remains the greatest of world powers. The
U.S. global role, past, present and future, must
never be minimized in assessing America's agony
and embarrassment over Cambodia and Veitnam,
over the Nixon presidency, over the dollar that is no
longer mighty. •
(Contributed)
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