Thursday, January 14, 2010



Wash. lawmaker wants to banish negative language

Rather amusing:
"Decades ago, poor children became known as "disadvantaged" to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were "at-risk." Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, "at hope."

Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids' chances for success and she's not a bit concerned that people will be confused by her proposed rewrite of the 54 places in state law where words like "at risk" and "disadvantaged" are used.

The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups. "We really put too many negatives on our kids," says Franklin, who is the state Senate's president pro tem. "We need to come up with positive terms."

Positive labeling is more than a gimmick or political correctness, Franklin says. She believes her idea could lead to a paradigm shift in state government and to changes in classrooms across the state....

Wally Endicott, the northwest director of the Phoenix-based Children of Hope, says he was excited to talk to Franklin about the bill. But he is not thrilled with the idea of using "children at hope" to refer just to the disadvantaged. His group uses the concept to talk about all kids, not just those in poverty, because all children have obstacles to their success.

If Franklin's proposal is approved, Pink has no doubts the idea has the potential to catch on quickly. Years from now, he says, "at hope" could even make Lake Superior's List of Banished Words.

Source

The stupid Leftist belief in verbal magic again. People will realize very quickly that "at hope" means "dummy" and will use "at hope" mockingly -- so nothing positive will be achieved. It may even lead to dummies being treated more scornfully.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

She can only do this if she also agrees to properly re-label the state Senate to the more fitting and less negative "Clown Circus" and of course taking the label of Clown in place of Senator.

Of course the true clowns may be horribly offended by being associated with something as low but you can't please everyone.

Anonymous said...

Like this will change anything. What a waste of time and money. How do the fools get elected. Stormewaters

We The Poeple said...

Hey, the only truly disadvantaged people in the US are the tax payers, and it's because no one speaks for, or cares about them.

And the only thing that has hurt childrens chances for success is the Dumbocrat party and their goofy, leftist policies of teaching kids that no one ever loses or fails, at anything! They have robbed our children of one of the most important things in life. Incentive.

In a just world, Sen. Franklin would be taken out to the front of the state capital, put on a horse in front of a tall tree, and have a rope put around her neck. For the first time, she would truly understand what the people really think of politicians.

Bobby said...

Sounds like Orwellian doublespeak to me. I guess this is how the democrats feel productive, they can't fix real world problems so they invent problems that don't exist.

Anonymous said...

How about, "Children who need to get their parents to get off their collective butts and help themselves?"

Naught At Hope said...

I think it would take the grade-schoolers no more than 5 minutes before they started pronouncing the term by running the words "at hope" together so they sound like "a dope."

"Nyah nyah, you're at hope."

Anonymous said...

"Like this will change anything. What a waste of time and money. How do the fools get elected." Stormewaters

We, the Nation of Fools elects them, because we put more faith in snappy campaign ads and media lies than we put in people. We deserve nothing better.

Anonymous said...

What truly needs to be banned are politicians!

wes said...

If the liberals aren't careful, they will eventually do away with all the problems they are so anxious to solve, merely by altering labels. If they are "at hope" why do we have to do anything at all for them as opposed to someone who is "poor". There won't be anyone left for liberals to "help" and thankfully we won't need them anymore.

Anonymous said...

Fact is, they're still being labeled which means they can be identified ans singled out. In a PC world, that still doesn't cut it.

Gone are the days of winners and losers, people who pass and people who fail, those who succeed and those who don't. Ho hum.