I just posted one of those silly Facebook “copy and paste” status updates on my personal page — this one was “If YOU REALLY KNOW ME you know I love ____________.”
The very first answer? “Correct grammar.”
Guilty as charged.
Cliche or not, words matter, and the imprecise use of them chips away at our authority as communicators. My latest soapbox involves those who are debating the kind of judges the next president will appoint to the Supreme Court.
The answer? None.
Presidents don’t “appoint” judges to the federal bench. They “nominate” them. Nit-picky? Not really. An appointment is unilateral — nothing anybody can do about it if it’s the president’s desire. A nomination — well, that requires “confirmation,” one of those glorious bits of genius of the Founding Fathers we call checks and balances. If the president wants it but the Senate doesn’t, well, it doesn’t happen. Google “Robert Bork” if you don’t believe me.
Why does this matter any more than those calculus classes you took in college to your everyday life? Because chances are, when you’re talking about such things as who the next Leader of the Free World is going to place on the highest court in the land, you’ll be either trying to demonstrate you understand the issues or hoping to influence someone else to your way of thinking on the issues. Getting something as simple, but practically profound, as the difference between an appointment and a nomination wrong is the gap between you being taken seriously or taken for a fool.
Maybe you wouldn’t have voted to confirm the grammar cops in your orbit if they were presented to you as nominees. But realize their self-appointed presence in your life can help you a lot more than hurt you if you pay attention when they lay down the language law.
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