Day 24.

Even as a small child I loved to argue about words, about what one person, mainly my brother, had exactly said because I felt the specific wording of a phrase held distinct importance. It is no wonder now that I love studying words, their effects, and how people use them. I almost wish I knew what I know now about words when I was arguing with my mom and brother about the importance of correctly relaying the dialogue between my brother and I during our fights-- I would have won most all the fights. (I think it is extremely humorous that someone like myself could love words so much and, also,  frequently forget the right words, use the wrong words, mispronounce words, and over use words with lovely descriptive capabilities such as 'stuff'' and 'things'.) For now, though, I am through arguing over words, over who said what and when and why I am right as a result of it. In taking all the energy I placed into arguing before and transferring it to understanding words, their importance and weight, I am seeking to better understand both the world around me and myself. I may not be able to eloquently explain everything I have learned about words, but I feel like I have gained a deeper understanding of language. In my Rhetoric of Humans Rights class, we have learned about a few, extremely powerful words that have a huge impact on the human rights scene. One of such words, genocide, is the young product of Raphael Lemkin who sought to appropriately name what was happening to the Jews in World War Two. Coupled with the "g-word" is a much older one that has been easily adapted to the human rights vocabulary..."war criminal". Both words, well at least as seemingly framed by Samantha Powell in "A Problem From Hell," are to be used to prevent atrocities from occurring and to stop those already occurring by naming genocides and pointing out war criminals. It seems so shocking to me that both words can also be used to encourage violence, not the prevention of it. The detailed examples of which I will spare you. Words are neither good nor bad, helpful nor hurtful, but incredibly powerful. How that strength is utilized is solely in the hands of those who wield them which, the last time I checked, is most every living human being. I think that is all very fascinating.