By Tonja Condray Klein©08/15/2021
As a self-published writer and intellectual learner, I love using the English language the way most writers used to use it with words that demanded I either learned the words in school or would need to pause my reading to look the word up before I continued. Of course, in 2021 academia is trying to dumb down the English language, dismiss words they feel are too ‘archaic’ to be learned or understood, and ban words they have decided are misogynistic, racist, or gender-leaning. All of these things actually misrepresent the actual meanings from the time frame they were used in earlier writings. I’ve seen more recent reviews for some of my favorite novels that infuriate me because the reviewers take word usage that was NOT meant that way in the time that the book was written, but the readers must be too ignorant to even know that!
Reality of words should not be allowed to be misstated, misused, or misrepresented! This is against ALL things in the written word throughout ALL of known history. This shouldn’t be allowed, and it definitely should NOT be taught to those in schools where they have no way to know the differences since historical references are completely being ignored, censured, or even destroyed. I still have some of these writings created before the horrid changes took over, and I’m very thankful for them and will try to protect them. I’m aware some words actually have changed meanings over the course of decades or centuries like ‘awesome’ and ‘radical’, both of which I use in the positive though others might not if they have been brainwashed by anti-reality education. READ OLDER BOOKS. Look up archaic words. You might like them!
The beloved Christian Contemporary Music Artist Carman wrote the song “Radically Saved” that I love and have listened to ever since it came out in 1988. The term ‘Radical’ was used by Valley Girls in the 1980’s meaning ‘cooler than just’ awesome according to an online source when I looked it up. When did academia decide to change it to the negative? People who lived through the 1980’s have always thought of this word as used in a fun way. While terms change to not be ‘cool’ anymore, it wasn’t technically ‘allowed’ in English class for the meaning of well-established words in English to be changed to mean the opposite even on a collegiate whim. I won’t change my positive view of ‘Radical’ since the group I love named DISCPLE has a song called “Radical” that says EXACTLY how I feel as a Christian in 2021 America.
We need to RECLAIM OUR WORDS! Not everyone will agree with how others view some words that have been demeaned or even demonized before, but there is still hope that any of us who are intellectuals and wish to instill our love of those words into the hearts of our children, grandchildren, or family children then there is still hope if we stop academia from brainwashing them before we can counter their attacks against these words that ‘academics’ claim are ‘too hard’ for people to understand now let alone children. I was reading C.S. Lewis on my own at eight years old. I also read the King James Bible ON MY OWN. I have an IQ that is considered ‘Gifted’, but other children need to be given the right to learn these words to broaden their imaginations and creativity. WORDS HAVE POWER! Gift that to their generation.
I’m very vocal on this subject because I had to fight tooth and nail to get good grades in school when I was young because I was always sick. I’ve talked about that to the point most of you will stop reading so I won’t belabor that now. It enrages me to see what the education system is doing to children now in their grasp. I call it ‘child abuse’ like others have on how they are separating kids by color or background in a way that Martin Luther King Junior would’ve rallied against. Whether they are trying to reinstitute segregation or not, THIS LOOKS LIKE IT. I went to school with all colors and all backgrounds but knew no difference with how we treated each other in school or on the playground because of that. One of my friends from school and church was African American, and we would teach Youth Group at church together.
THAT IS AMERICA! He’s an Evangelist now with a beautiful family. I’m married without children, but I helped raise my brother’s lineage of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, great-great-nieces, and great-great-nephews. I fear what my great-great group will have to learn in school now! In church we learned, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world! RED and YELLOW, BLACK and WHITE, THEY’RE ALL precious in His sight! Jesus loves the little children of the world!” THIS IS TRUTH! The educational system seems to be trying to turn the children against each other. They are also trying to take away the words that help to make our language rich, varied, and more intelligent in content. They are trying to ‘dumb down’ the kids so they can control them. IT MUST STOP BEFORE TOO LATE!
We MUST Reclaim True Definitions of Words! My favorite writer will always be Christopher Stasheff. He wrote amazing Fantasy and Science Fiction stories that helped create the genre that includes my favorite of all time I’ve alluded to before: SAINT VIDICON TO THE RESCUE. He has been removed from the local library! There have been rude and ignorant reviews given for his books online. THIS IS NOT OKAY. Yes, everyone has the right to an opinion, but to have whole works of a writer removed when he’s considered by history as the ‘Grandfather of Sci-Fi/Fantasy literature’ is the most infuriating thing for me as a reader of this genre since I was eight! Although I found Stasheff a little later than I did C.S. Lewis, Stasheff’s style with his characters and the intricacy of his stories is what helped me to mold my own.
Things do change, but allowing the intelligence of children, teens, and young adult to deteriorate is an offensive and blatantly anti-American ploy that needs to be addressed by parents, grandparents, guardians, and any other adult that has those in school that need protected. If the ‘system’ gets full control of your children then they can make them become pawns for their plans to change America into an anti-Capitalism, anti-Democracy, anti-Faith, and anti-Individual place. It is the goal of the Socialists, Communists, and Totalitarians to make America fall from being the beacon of Freedom that we’ve been since this country was established. We’ve had our times of bad governing, but we changes the path, and that promise was meant for ALL when Martin Luther King Junior began the Civil Rights movement that should remain.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, One Nation under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice FOR ALL!” That is a promise that means something for all the American citizens who will claim it legally. WORDS WITH MEANING are what we MUST cling to for our own American Dream to become reality. I was blessed to be a Generation-Xer. We still had the actual teaching for Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Science, Social Studies, History, Civics, and even Home-Ec. What will Generation-Z have? If we all don’t stand up and make our voices heard then Z won’t learn what we know is TRUE and needed to LIVE. The WORDS of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, and any other literature will be lost to Z if we don’t demand they learn it.
All of these issues are based on the loss of real education. Indoctrination is NOT learning the subject correctly. If we can’t Reclaim True Definitions of WORDS so all of what is needed by every person to know can be READ at all, then this country will fall. Is that what we want for any legal American? Is that what we want for our families? Is that what we want for ourselves? I can’t accept losing the words that have meaning we NEED, and I can’t sit by without giving my real opinion even if no one else cares. I’m a woman of WORDS. I always have been and I always will be. I can’t stomach the idea that someone else can take those WORDS away from any single person in America! I can’t and I won’t without any kind of reaction to gain understanding with others so we can challenge this horrible thieving of OUR WORDS!
One of the greatest disappointments I’ve had was realizing teens and young adults right now CAN’T READ. I’m not talking about college-level; I’m talking about sixth grade level. They are given diplomas when they can’t even READ, WRITE, or do enough MATH to create a budget for their resources. What kind of citizens can’t read their own rights, sign their own name for legal forms, or make out a check to pay bills – a CONTROLLED one. That’s what is being done a bit at a time to gain even more control over citizens so those in power can stay in power for as long as they live! They are the anti-Freedom and power-hungry leaders who WANTED Grandma and Grandpa to die from Covid-19. They even wanted Mom and Dad to if they didn’t support them. They want anyone who REMEMBERS to die so they can erase History!
I’ve written so many Op-Eds you probably don’t even want to read them anymore if you don’t see my points as possible or ever affecting you. Think about it. REALLY think. Not about what any of the press keeps telling you on one-sided news programs. Not about what your best friend from high school says you should think. Not about what your so-called minister claims is the way to have peace with all now. If possible, go online and type in ‘old history books used in 1980’s’. Write down the names. Go to the public library. If they haven’t been removed yet check them out to READ. If you have kids or grandkids in school now then compare the information to one of their books. I’m almost certain you’ll find such HUGE differences you might think your head is going to explode. JUST BREATHE NOW.
I could actually call this Op-Ed ‘Reclaiming True Education’ instead of just True Definitions. I wanted to focus on the English situation for now. As a READER AND WRITER this is one of my own pet peeves driving me to consider vacating Earth by asking Jesus Christ to send a Murai Tenshi to bring me over to Eirinth. Even if I’d have to fight visual demons there, at least they wouldn’t be in my own government stealing my rights and the future of our family’s children. In Eirinth, I’d have a gift that could cast out demons lickety-split. On Earth, I only have my writing to voice my opinions to go to as many people as I can before it’s too late to stop the deterioration of our country. Seeing that Afghanistan is in Taliban control, I guess I should simply consider that the Messiah might come and get ALL of His people instead…