Language Under Fire

Have you noticed lately that a great many people and institutions seem to be “under fire”? Consider this small sample of recent headlines:

• US Attorney General Comes Under Fire from Senate Committee
• NBC under fire over tapes
• Scientific Legitimacy of Psychiatry’s “Billing Bible” Increasingly Under Fire
• Simon Cowell under fire for rolling eyes during contestant’s VA Tech tribute
• Gere under fire
• Paulose, Under Fire, Defends Her Qualifications
• Wolfowitz, female friend under fire at World Bank
• Bush library plans under fire

It appears that our language is as rife with violence as our culture. For the record, none of the above is truly under fire. The students at Virginia Tech were under fire. American soldiers and Iraqi civilians are often under fire. Residents of American cities plagued by gang violence are sometimes under fire. Police officers are on occasion under fire. To employ such language to describe the circumstances of Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, Simon Cowell, Richard Gere, and others diminishes the experiences of those who actually are or have been under gunfire. I know that this is a niggling point, but—after 4+ years of war in Iraq and after the bloodshed this week at Virginia Tech—I have grown decidedly weary of such ugliness. Can’t we find less violent language to use? Can’t we find less violent ways to live? Is that asking too much?

3 thoughts on “Language Under Fire”

  1. Since we are coming up on the anniversary of Columbine, teachers and school kids are also sadly under fire occasionally.

    I think you hit on something though David – must be the belicose nature of our country . I remember a George Carlin skit about how we declare war on everything. or, as part of the same skit, “if crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight?”

  2. I read something years ago about the difference between Canadians and Americans. One of the things that most distinguished us was the Canadians’ lack of folk heros like Jesse James, let alone Bonnie & Clyde. Violence is part of our culture in ways it’s not part of Canada. One reason, the article opines, is that we held a revolution, the Canadians came to a gentlemen’s (gentlepersons?) agreement.

    I believe something such was part of Michael Moore’s “Bowling For Columbine,” wasn’t it?

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