Hoverboards hover, handle-less segways, hands-free segways, or whatever you want to call them as long as it isn’t “hoverboards” do not. As for actual hoverboards they do exist, but you wouldn’t want one, at least not any time soon.
Learning, Living, and Loving Language
The better our species can communicate with and understand each other the better our prospects for a peaceful, prosperous, and laughter filled future will be. Learning a new language increases the amount of knowledge and information we can access as well as the number of people we can share our knowledge and information with. Additional languages also allow us to step outside of our native language, culture, and to a certain extent ourselves, and view them as an outside observer which can provide us with new perspectives and invaluable insights. Furthermore learning language in itself is a great way to exercise the brain and stay mentally sharp as we age.
Two Phrases That Need Replacing
Languages belong to the people who speak them and since I’m typing this and you’re reading it that means us. Therefore rather than accepting the way things are said we should ask ourselves if there’s a better way to say them and if there is we should start using it. Here are two phrases that I think are harmful to society and would love to see fade from the English language. Preferably by way of world peace which would make them irrelevant but until then lets use different phrases.
“Killing his own people”
First off are they really his own people? Do people belong to unelected dictators, elected politicians, or anyone for that matter? Second why imply that it’s worse to kill people that are of the same or similar race and ethnicity or of the same nationality than it is to kill someone that is of a different race, ethnicity, or nationality? Instead of talking about dictators or governments that “kill their own people” I suggest we use phrases like “killing innocent people” or “killing civilians” instead.
“Boots on the ground”
First “collateral damage” as a euphemism for innocent victims of what is oftentimes criminally negligent manslaughter and now this. Military euphemisms are dangerous because they make war seem less repulsive than it really is therefore we should all oppose their use. Therefore I suggest we replace this term with “troops on the ground” or even “sons and daughters on the ground” in order to show what’s really at stake because boots can be replaced, people can’t.