Dear Editor:
Disassemble is to take apart, whereas Dissemble is to deceive. That’s just the latest glaring example of people whose job is to speak to the whole of the public, in this case our President, and yet not being able to do so properly. Great oratory is apparently unattainable, is simple competence too much to ask for as well.
Politicians and Celebrities, we may stretch to excuse, but what of our newscasters? They fumble with sentences that they suddenly realize are inept. They make erratic and erroneous statements, and one can almost hear the apologetic “You know what I mean.” They use the same made up words as the people in the street! One day our present language will be as unintelligible to most of us as Old English.
Should our present libraries need translation because no one whose job it is to speak to us, can hire a writer as intelligent as the TV shows do, or are our leaders disdaining education with their every breath. I thought no child left behind meant catching them up, not all of us dropping down to the lowest level?
“…aft gang aglay”. That’s often go astray, as in our best laid plans are fouling up, probably because we can’t understand them.
Fritz Haas