My column today is called “Snapshots of America” (as a column or two in the past have been). It begins at the Metropolitan Opera and ends at Madison Square Garden, with Billy Joel. In between are Milwaukee, Kansas City, and a bit of Southern California. Try it here.
Last Sunday, I published an interview with Oleksandra Matviichuk, the Ukrainian human-rights lawyer. The organization she heads — the Center for Civil Liberties, in Ukraine — is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize this year. With me, she discussed, among other things, the importance of Ukrainian identity, and the efforts of the Kremlin to wipe it out.
A reader writes,
I was in grammar school in the mid-Fifties during the Cold War and remember fearing that Russian nuclear bombs might rain destruction at any minute. I am not proud of harassing an immigrant classmate by calling him a “dirty Russian.” He responded by emphatically declaring, “I am not Russian, I am Ukrainian!” I never understood the depth of his passion until now.
On this theme, allow me to paste something I wrote last March:
When I was in fourth grade, our teacher was an émigré from Ukraine. This was in Ann Arbor, Mich., at Pattengill Elementary School. Mid ’70s. Not being able to pronounce his last name, we called him “Mr. K.” Most of the kids, I’m afraid, treated him poorly. Snotty little SOBs, everywhere you looked.
One day, we went to an assembly at which Mr. K. and his family performed Ukrainian national songs and dances. They did so in traditional dress.
Anyway, I have thought of Mr. K. in recent weeks. I asked him once about what he had seen in the Old Country. I don’t remember his words. I remember the look on his face, the tone of his voice, and the emotions he expressed. I got the feeling: Nightmarish, barely speakable things had occurred.
Earlier this month, I had a post on abortion, saying I despised euphemisms such as “choice” and “reproductive rights,” and was not even crazy about “life” (as in “pro-life,” instead of “anti-abortion”). I got this terribly interesting letter from a doctor:
Jay,
I appreciate your thoughts on the euphemisms that abortion-rights advocates have used to bend the debate in their favor. I think your logic is spot-on, but your argument is still missing one degree. The word “abortion” is itself a euphemism.
“Abortion” as a medical term originally meant the premature end of a pregnancy, an umbrella term that included miscarriage (“spontaneous abortion”) and termination of pregnancy. But “termination” doesn’t sound so good, does it? No one wants to be pro-termination.
The first successful co-opting of language by the abortion-rights movement was the word “abortion” itself. They were so successful at this that “abortion” has come to be synonymous with “termination,” even in most medical literature, and the older definition of abortion is almost forgotten.
But “choice” is an even bigger prize!
In a post on Monday, I cited Colin Powell, and his call for the “restoration of a sense of shame” in American society. A reader who worked for Powell sent me a letter that concluded with this:
. . . the Powell phrase I most love is “optimism is a force multiplier.” I use that often. Of course, Powell meant justified (or at least plausible) optimism, which is built up with sweat and dedication. The attitude is an approach to be built upon, not an idiot’s crutch.
A friend who is a military veteran says,
I always figured the real reason Colin Powell never ran for office was that he didn’t want to sit and listen to a ten-minute briefing from some civilian who wasn’t even old enough to be a major telling him what his opinion needed to be about housing starts.
Thanks to one and all. Again, for today’s Impromptus — a kind of photographic travelogue — go here.