Sarah Palin’s Resignation Tragedy

Judging by the comments from my last post, only a third of my readers will stop reading an article if the writer employs bad grammar or punctuation.  The other two-thirds might judge the writer or criticize him or her, but will continue to read. 

Following that, I just have to wonder what you all think of this piece of writing.   The link is to Sarah Palin’s speech announcing that she’s resigning as Governor of Alaska.  I’ve been meaning to write about it for days, but the flu has kept me from it.  I must thank my dear friend Brendan for pointing out what a tragedy of the English language it is.  (If you enjoyed the SNL Tina Fey skits from the election, please go read the speech in its entirety.  I don’t think any comedy was intended, but it sure is easy to find in it.)

 Sarah Palin gave this speech as governor.  She has a college degree, a staff who could have written for this her, and what I can only assume is access to several proofreaders.  Yet we end up with many sections like this:

“Alaska’s mission – to contribute to America. We’re strategic in the world as the air crossroads of the world, as a gatekeeper of the continent. Bold visionaries knew this – Alaska would be part of America’s great destiny.
Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and oil and gas. It’s energy! God gave us energy.”

Yes, God gave us energy.  And man gave us grammatical rules and tools.  But Gov. Palin gave us sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and superfluous punctuation marks.  Right here, in the following two sentences, she shows a blazing disregard for verbs:  ”Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and oil and gas.”

I won’t go into how ridiculous I think her argument is that staying in office her full term would be just “politics as usual.”  I promise.  It’s killing me, of course, but I don’t want to distract from the blatantly bad writing that is her resignation speech.  It’s just bad writing, people.  I started to get out my red pen and my Google Docs to share some fun with you, but I didn’t have the strength.  Where would I even start?  Would it just be editing to correct for punctuation errors?  That would take a while.  Then there would be the lack of subjects and predicates in any logical relation to each other.  Or would I try to get into style? I couldn’t get into style, of course.  I am too far away from her politics and mindset to try to give her style tips.

I realize, of course, that this is the transcript of a speech, and some politicians take artistic license with speeches.  But what artistic value is served in the next sentence? “So much success in this first term – and with this success I am proud to take credit… for hiring the right people!”  Why the dash?  Why the ellipses?   And even if it is a speech transcript, it’s posted on the State of Alaska’s website.  Doesn’t that deserve proofreading?

I don’t have a lot of points I’m trying to make here.  I’m just trying to say that our elected officials should pay attention to the elementary grammar rules we were all taught in grade school.  Is that asking so much?

Would Like Your Opinion

“Kidron this morning wrote in a research note that his checks with the channel find the company’s sales in teh quarter might come in light of the company’s guidance of $92 million to $94 million.”

“Don’t you run spell-check? ‘Sales in teh quarter might come in light.’

Hard to have credibility when you make such silly errors.”

Comment by Anonymous – June 26, 2009 at 10:10 pm

“I don’t think mis-spelling the word ‘the’ is that big a deal. Did it prevent you from reading the article or understanding it?”

Comment by stop being lame… – June 27, 2009 at 10:17 pm

The exchange above is from comments on an investing blog.  I happen to agree with Anonymous, and I’m sure none of you are surprised.  I’ve said on this blog before that I think sloppy writing can be a sign of sloppy thinking or reasoning.  I also think it is just good business practice (any practices in many other parts of life) to double-check your work.  (See, I learned something from my math teachers.)  Or if you aren’t going to double-check your work, at least SPELL CHECK, as Anonymous suggests.

But I’m a grammar geek.  Dear Readers, what do you think?  Does the misspelling of a common word affect your opinion of an article or blog?

Oh How I Love Lessons Like This!

Thanks to San Diego John for this great picture.  If you are going to insist people speak English, please first be sure that you are proficient in the language.

Time to Read

I have a new job!  I work in San Francisco now, which is a 45-60 minute train ride away, depending on which train I catch.  If I time it right and catch the “Baby Bullet,” there are only four stops between me and the city.  (I love the Baby Bullet.) 

Two trains a day = at least 90 minutes on the train each day.  That’s 450 minutes of reading each week.  That’s right: I just added 7.5 hours of reading time to my week.

Of course, I hadn’t worked full time since February, and last week (my first week of an additional 7.5 hours of reading time) I was dog meat most days on the train.  Friday I think I slept on the way there and back.  I tried to pick through some Stephen Covey, but that was way too much work for my tired little head. 

Last night in the bath, I finally started Dear and Glorious Physician.  I’m only a short way in, but I already knew this fundamental truth: always trust book recommendations from Dad.

I’m open to other suggestions, as well.  I’ve got some time to fill.

From Paradise

Can you believe I forgot Dear and Glorious Physician?  Ugh.  But have finished Outliers, and am enjoying the Bryson book.  At least I know what I’ll start when I get home!

If any of you are looking for peace, quiet, gorgeous beaches, and a break from civilization, I highly recommend Molokai.

Packing

Film Chris and I leave for Hawaii early tomorrow morning.  I am making sure to have the most important items: sunscreen, books, and wine.  (Just two bottles, in case we can’t find any decent wine on Molokai.)

At the suggestion of one of my favorite readers, I am taking Dear and Glorious Physician with me.  I am hoping to finish Outliers on the plane, and I also have The World As Stage (The brilliant Bill Bryson’s book on Shakespeare) as a back-up.  Oh, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  We’ll be gone five nights, you know, so I need to have options. 

Aloha!

Learning New Words, Spelling Hard Ones

We had friends from Australia in town for a few days, and we picked up some excellent Aussie slang. 

“Mackers” for McDonald’s
“Dunny” for Toilet (originally an outdoor one)
“No Wuckas” for No Worries
“Onya” for Well Done, or Good on You
“Whinge” for Complain or Whine

And the same week, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is on prime time television!  Nerds like me* are in heaven this evening. 

 

* I want to tell you that I was the spelling bee champ for my school in the 7th grade.   I made it to the county bee, where I lost in the third round.  (Oddly, I don’t remember the word I misspelled.)

Insult to Injury: Defined

When I was laid off, my company said they would ship the contents of my desk to me.  The boxes just arrived today.

A picture frame, hand-made candy dish and light bulb (random object, I realize, but there’s an uninteresting explanation) had all broken in the box, leaving everything else covered in tiny shards of glass.  And as I was unpacking the box, I cut  my hand and bled on some of my personal effects.

Injury to insult, actually.

See? The Onion Gets it!

Even fake newspapers understand the importance of good grammar. 

The Onion Asks “Who or whom?”

Freedom of Speech Does Not Mean Freedom From Judgement

Hello, interweb. I’m climbing up on my soapbox for a much-needed rant.

There are few things I care about less right now than whether Miss California gets to keep her crown.  I have a job to find, an apartment to clean, and menopause to go through.  But Carrie Prejean pissed me off enough today that I need to speak out.

No, I’m not bothered about her views on gay marriage; she’s entitled to them.  I’m also not annoyed or offended by her semi-nude pictures.  (I’m more surprised when these women don’t take off their clothes every chance they get.  They are drop-dead gorgeous.) 

What has pissed me off today is Miss Prejean’s statement during her press conference with Donald Trump.  (By the way, the only thing I might care about less than all of this is anything that Trump does.)  She suggests that her right to freedom of speech has been threatened.

4:22 into the video:  “On April 19, on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech and I was punished for doing so.  This should NOT happen in America.  It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for. ” [sic]

Nope, sorry.  This is exactly what happens in America, and it in no way threatens the constitutional right to freedom of speech.  The constitution protects her right to speak out against gay marriage.  But it also protects the right of Perez Hilton and any other critics to speak out against Prejean.  It does not protect her right to be liked for what she says.  There is no such right.   She has the right to speak her opinion; you have the right to judge her for what she says.  That’s the beauty (or folly, if you want) of our Bill of Rights.  That’s what Grandpa fought for. 

Prejean can be as pissed off as she wants at the “media storm” against which she rails.  But she should not be pissed off that someone exercised their right to speak out against her. 

(Steps off soapbox.)