THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120253
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: BY TONY STEIN
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
I earned my living for more than 40 years by using words. I wrote them, edited them and directed readers' attention to them by writing headlines.
That experience has taught me a major lesson: Words matter. They matter very much.
I'm writing after just having read about ex-President George H.W. Bush resigning from the National Rifle Association. He quit because an NRA fund-raising letter called some federal agents thugs and storm troopers, ``even murderers.''
Yes, I know about the First Amendment. I have gloried in freedom of speech during a lifetime career as a newspaperman. Yes, I know that to say something is not the same as doing it or advising that it be done. But in a society ripped by violence, in a society where tools of violence are ever at hand, in a society fragmented by passionate believers in an endless array of causes, words matter.
Listening to the debate touched off by the role radio talk shows may have played in the Oklahoma City bombing, I think about two quotes from famous men. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln hated imposing the death penalty on soldiers who deserted. ``Must I shoot the poor soldier boy who deserts,'' he asked, ``and not touch a hair of the head of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?''
Good question. And then there was Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who once wrote that freedom of speech does not give you the right to yell ``Fire!'' in a crowded hall. I agree. And some of what I hear is the equivalent of yelling ``Fire!'' in a crowded hall.
I hear it too often in the disputes that rage stridently through our society. When I do, I remember this: Words matter. Somewhere out there are people committed beyond all else, committed to the very depths of their souls to a cause. Committed, in some cases, beyond reasonable debate. And when they hear their leaders or the people they admire decry the other side in the language of extremism and violence, I don't find it hard to believe that they are impelled to action.
So what am I saying here? I'm groping in my own mind for an answer, and I keep remembering what Justice Holmes said. Is there some better way that violence-provoking words can be legally dealt with? I ask that and, in the same thought, ask who will determine what are violence-provoking words.
I guess I am pushed back to the beginning of this musing. I guess all I am saying, all I am asking is that people on any level of discourse, public or private, remember that words can be like an enveloping hug or a vicious punch. Caring words left unspoken can breed unending regret. Ugly words spoken in haste can make wounds that never quite heal.
Words can give joy or pain. Words can infuse with new life or - I believe this - they can kill. Words matter. by CNB