Dear President Obama:
I have a place in one of those
successive generations of Americans that you referred to in your State of the
Union Address as "doin' better" — got more education, made more money
— than the one preceding it. And
if my Congressman asked me, in a hearing, "How are you doing now?" I,
knowing that this was Congress and the occasion formal, would have said,
"I am doing better."
I am used to the slouching of
"ing" words in colloquial speech, accept it in campaign speeches, and
admire it in speeches that win uneducated people to a good cause — as many of
yours have done. But last night
you were delivering the State of the Union address to the United States
Congress. I think they, on that formal
occasion, wanted to hear what you are "going to do," not what you are
"gonna do."
One of the ways I am doing better
than my uneducated forebears is in my choice of words for my audience. I went to college and was taught by my
Freshman Composition teacher that "when you want to be taken seriously by
an educated audience you speak and write as educated people do" — that is,
formally for formal occasions and informally for informal occasions.
I know that our notions of formal
and informal have been scrambled lately, and that men in high office have led
the way. It might have begun with
a President from your own party, "Jimmy"
Carter. But I'm not asking
Presidents to return to three names.
And, as long as they don't ask people in my Appalachian area if they're
"doon better," I'm not asking them to change their campaign
style. I'm just asking that they
pay a little closer attention to what "better" means.
Yours very sincerely,
Roland Swardson
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