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"Content Warning: This website contains language that is offensive or harmful. Please engage with this website at your own pace." We are not sure how we reached that conclusion, as it is abundantly and objectively clear that (1) no person can judge what is subjectively offensive or hurtful to another, and (2) any word may in fact be offensive and so it is ultimately best to not use any words. You can escape the following offense and harm by clicking the "back" button now.
As the end of 2022 nears, and we stare down the cold and dreary months of the new beginning that will be 2023, I am drawn to retrospection. It has been an intriguing year. There have been many news stories. Some delivered more questions than answers, some piqued interest and debate, and some likely caused offense and consternation. It seems increasingly easy in today's world to offend someone (Stop here and click the "back" button). In another age, the world persistently delivered such offense with intent. Various groups and individuals were ridiculed, seemingly without consequence. As they say, times change.
We are increasingly reminded that there is potential for hurt and even harm in our words. Gone are the "sticks and stones" assurances of our youth, and we have societally concluded that words not only can but do hurt. In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, there apparently exists the very real possibility that our hospitals will be overrun with hoards of diminished and shattered lives, suffering from the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (Billy Shakespear, 1601)(Sarcasm. I warned you above to click "back" and avoid what follows).
We glance around the globe this Christmas and see rape as a terror tactic in Haiti. There are 50 million people in modern slavery. Thousands have died in the war senseless aggression in the Ukraine, while many more there suffer from injuries, displacement, hunger, cold, disease, and more. Domestically, we see violence. CNN reports that there is a "gun epidemic" in America and that it is disparately impacting various categories that CNN (or others) has elected to employ in order to gather and designate co-equal persons based upon outward perceptions and conclusions of the observer (CNN or others). I apologize for exposing the reader to terms like rape, slavery, and war. I further apologize for raising untoward subjects like hunger, violence, and disease, and more so for repeating those words again in apologizing (The "back button" is on the upper left of your screen).
These are only examples. I don't mean to minimize Tibet, Ethiopia, hunger, and the list goes on and on. As William Joel noted decades ago in We didn't Start the Fire (Columbia 1989): "I can't take it anymore." If you think the world is in a state of higgeldy piggeldy today, look over the litany in that recording's lyrics. If William is to be believed, there was perhaps some turmoil even in the good old days.
But, thankfully, we have American higher education and its sheltered elites wise pedagogues to bring us back to reality from all those pseudo world challenges. The view, you see, is far better from an ivory tower altitudinally enhanced structure, and thus those who dwell there are privileged to bring us their enlightened and superior perspectives. (There I go lumping people together in categories, apologies; hit the "back button" or click here to escape to a safe space).
These Some academic critics leaders urge that "small change could make a huge difference." They are upset that using terms like "walk-in" is insensitive to those "who use a wheelchair." They think the use of "insane" is insensitive to those who have mental conditions. The academics are seemingly perturbed by a wide variety of words. If you have credentials, you might even penetrate the website to which they link. Yes, the EHLI website linked from Stanford "Introducing the Elimination of Harmful Initiative" is behind a security wall. Not only is it seemingly pompous enlightening, but it is secretive exclusive as well. (Apologies for the use of "exclusive, "which is in no way intended to convey exclusion of any particular person or group to or minimize the pain or discomfort of those who long for inclusion, but is only to describe the effect of the implementation choices of our intellectual guides).
What other words reside there? For one, the one that is garnering attention, there is "America," according to Newsweek. The fine people at Stanford, "snug in their beds, . . . visions of sugar plums danc(ing) in their heads" fear that utterance of "America" may offend, upset, unsettle, or worse. They ask that we all be more conscious of the way we use words and how our choices may create harm, pain, or discomfort in others.
Stanford University coincidentally has an American Studies Program. It has an American Studies Instagram account. It has a Latin American Studies Program. And yet, it has suggested to the rest of us that we should not use "America" as that word may offend. At the end of the day, any word you use might offend someone. Perhaps someone should be employed full-time to focus on all the words the elites experts choose to question, disparage, or censor? Or, we might accept that because any word may offend, the onus is on the listener to change the channel (click that "back" button) or at least make mention of their discomfiture, concern, or objection?
We have lived through many waves of censorship in this country, America. We, in America, have survived many challenges. In times of strife and discontent, it is largely America to which the world turns for succor. It is America that protects, shelters, and facilitates our intellectual superiors as they gather and compile lists of grievances, shortcomings, and even subjectively discomforting words. There is always room for improvement, and that goes for America also. There is always room for discussion of what troubles, offends, or hurts. But, it seems a bit hypocritical to be offended by the same America that affords you the very freedom and security to be offended and hurt.
I am not in the "love it or leave it" crowd. But, I would suggest that there is much challenge and strife in this world of ours. In the grand scheme of 2022, offense at the word America should be at the bottom of anyone's list. (having a list at all, and including "America" is a pretty solid indicator you have too much time on your hands). In the spirit of the season, some academics across the country have striven (in good fun perhaps, though I am nonetheless reserving the right to be offended) to neutralize the pain in the old Night Before Christmas. In the spirit of today please check this holiday wish.
(Click "back" now, trigger warning! Potentially offensive words follow)
Merry Christmas and God Bless America!
If I have hurt or demeaned you in any way, please accept my apologies.
By Judge David Langham
Courtesy of Florida Workers' Comp
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About The Author
About The Author
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Judge David Langham
David Langham is the Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims at the Division of Administrative Hearings. He has been involved in workers’ compensation for over 25 years as an attorney, an adjudicator, and administrator. He has delivered hundreds of professional lectures, published numerous articles on workers’ compensation in a variety of publications, and is a frequent blogger on Florida Workers’ Compensation Adjudication. David is a founding director of the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary and the Professional Mediation Institute, and is involved in the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) and the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC). He is a vocal advocate of leveraging technology and modernizing the dispute resolution processes of workers’ compensation.
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