PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Words matter?

I always have believed in that phrase, sometimes to the consternation of the partners in my lobbying firm who suggested that I ought to become a believer in graphics – charts, graphs and photos.

Point made.

Those vehicles can increase understanding of your perspectives, but they should not come at the expense of words – especially using the best and right ones.

So it was that a development this week caught my attention. It was the dictate, supposedly, from the Trump Administration that its officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) could not use even words — vulnerable, diversity, entitlement, fetus, transgender, science-based and evidence-based.

As Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote this week:

“Everybody went bonkers on cue.

“Pro-choice activists insisted that such word changes were an attempt to thwart abortion rights. [I add that abortion rights advocates always believe every issue – every issue — is negative toward them.]

“The CDC pushed back and denied the ban.

“What really happened? It’s hard to know for sure at this point,” writes Parker.

“Some see a heavy-handed silencing, but the National Review’s Yuval Levin’s offers a different explanation. According to Levin’s sources, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, issued a stylebook to departments for the preparation of budget documents.

“Included were three of the words mentioned above — vulnerable, diversity and entitlement — with the suggestion they be used as little as possible because they were either used too often or incorrectly.”

Kudos to Parker for setting the record straight.

But back to my “words matter” issue.

I could open one of the two departments I run – the Department of Pet Peeves – to provide this summary of my peeves over words. But listing the peeves will suffice.

• I hate the current tendency to use nouns as verbs. For one example, think of the word “helm.” It is a noun. But it crops up continually as a verb, as it “someone helms a process to its conclusion.” Better to say “someone took the helm to bring a process to its conclusion.”
• Or, for another example, close to my passion for golf. Golf is a noun. Not a verb. You cannot “golf your ball.” You have to hit your golf ball.
• Or, think of the current tendency to add the suffix “ize” to many words. Many write“utilize” when “use” would do nicely. Or “prioritize” when “establish priorities” would do nicely.
• Or, the example from one of my partners – a person from whom I learned a great deal about the art of lobbying and public persuasion. In a cute way, he often used the word “catalyze.” I had to ask him what it meant. He said it meant to bring issues together to persuade folks to a particular point of view. Better, I suggest, to say that than to use “to catalyze,” which grates on the ears.

Enough for now, except to suggest that all of should endeavor to use the best and right words as we speak or write. Doing so will contribute substantially to greater understanding, even consensus.