To the Editor:
I am one of those terrible grammar grouses who deplore the sapping of strength from the English language.
I note that in current political utterances, local, state, federal, even global, the highest praise we can give our countrymen, that is, the expression of greatest virtue and worth, is “hard-working.” Hard-working American middle class, hard-working Maine families, etc., etc.
At the opposite pole, when we discuss wrong-doing, corruption, even outright evil, the worst word we can come up with is “unacceptable.”
Whatever became of vile, odious, contemptible, infamous (which seems to be currently mis-used as a synonym for “famous”), horrendous, horrific, obscene….
I fear wimpy language signals to others a wimpy nation.
