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 to 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 my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have written about this before – words matter.

And, as I have said in the past, I am an individual who likes words more than charts and graphs, or even, part of the time at least, photos.

So it is this morning that I write about good words that have been taken hostage by political campaigns. 

I could have posted this at one of the departments I run, the Department of Pet Peeves, but I chose this direct approach.

Here’s goes with “words-usurped” examples.

THE AMERICAN FLAG:  My wife and I have an American flag flying on our deck.  I have been prompted on occasion to make sure those who see it know that our flag touts the country, not Donald Trump.

Trumpians have tried to usurp the flag as a sign of loyalty to the man who wants to be president again, even as he faces numerous criminal proceedings.  On many occasions, Trumpians post the flag on the back-end of pickup trucks and drive around with it flying to express their fealty to Trump.

I say no.

The flag should be a symbol of support for America, an expression of patriotism, not support for any political campaign or candidate.

PRIDE:  This good word has been used a lot lately to mean support for those who tout the LGBTQ lifestyle.

On one hand, that’s fine by me as all persons – yes, all persons – need to be tolerated, if not respected.  But, to take the word pride, and make it into a political slogan, as in “pride week,” offends me.

GAY:  I suppose I could return to this word which, when I was growing up, meant being happy. 

Today, obviously, we have become comfortable using it to refer to what has been described as “another lifestyle.”

So be it, I guess.