the archives of f/k/a . . .

                                                                       synonyms ain’t sins  (Oct. 20, 2004)

    Have you heard the words battle ground and swing often enough this election cycle?  It’s really not difficult to click on a thesaurus (e.g., Merriam-Webster, Roget II, or WorldNet.), but the American news media seems allergic to synonyms in this presidential campaign.  And, we’ve been condemned to cliche hell.

 

Until recently, I couldn’t figure out why the two political parties were spending so much money to woo the 806 people living in Battle Ground, Indiana (Tippecanoe County), or  even the 3700 folks in Battle Ground, Washington.  And, believe me, Ken Burns and I might have picked Louisiana, Missouri or Illinois as “swing states,” but I could never have come up with all 19 states so-designated by the Bush and Kerry Campaigns for

this election cycle.        

• According to Wikipedia, the Washington Post has defined swing states as those that were decided by less than three percentage points in the 2000 presidential election.
  
• Encarta informs us that a swing voter is called a floating voter in the U.K.  That’s a nice alternative phrase, but it reminds me of hanging chads and the whole Election 2000 debacle.

Prof. Bainbridge and the New York Times (and even my sister), have told me that religion and faith play a

very important role in this Presidential Election.  Nevertheless, I have to assert my own constitutional rights

(the pursuit of happiness, not hackneyedness) and insist that synonyms are not sinful, wicked nor even un-right-eous.

 

   Syn-o-nyms are not sin-words — very different etymologies (see here and there).  Indeed, I’d say right

now that synonyms are heavenly, sublime, delightful — almost as enhanting as post-election silence will become by mid-November.

                                                                                                                                                               battle . . .   . .  . swing

 

Please, Media Moguls and Midgets:  Find some alternatives to “battle ground state” and “swing state”

during the next two weeks.  Even if you don’t like “floating,” how about variations of:

• oscillate, sway, rock, vibrate,  fluctuate, undulate, waver, tilt, quiver, pulsate, to-and-fro
  
• skirmish, firefight, strategic, hard-fought, closely-contested, targeted
  
• important, significant, crucial, vital, decisive

       [feel free, dear reader, to add more PG-rated suggestions through our Comment Box]

 

  Maybe, soon, swing will again have connotations that I enjoy.

 

 

far from home
an empty swing
half my size

 

by Roberta Beary for Anita Virgil)  in Frogpond XIX:3 (1996)

&  A New Resonance 2:  (Red Moon Press, 2001)

 

our kids on the swing

old enough to push  each other

april evening

 

 

by Matt Morden  from A New Resonance 2: Emerging Voices

in English-Language Haiku  (Jim Kacian, Dee Evetts, eds. Red Moon Press, 2001)