Why Our Vocabulary Matters:
What are the words many of use to describe our country? Our political system and process? Ourselves? The purpose of this series of posts – which I will post periodically as I travel – is to get to the bottom to these questions. As a History & Literature major in college, I always believed that understanding the words we use was the key to understanding our world and our places’ in it. I also realized quickly during my interviews that we use many of the same words when talking about America. Many people mention freedom, hard-work, and community ng other things. But people seem to use these words slightly differently. When one person says “freedom,” they mean a certain set of rights. Meanwhile, another uses freedom to talk about how they can be anyone they want to be in America.
Nothing is wrong with this difference, and neither person is right or wrong in their use. In fact, this difference, and others differences like it, is beautiful. We all make sense of America and its citizens in our own way, while still coming back to certain ideals. However, we also need to understand how different people use our civic vocabulary and ideals if we are ever to understand them and their political beliefs. Hopefully, these posts are a start for all of us to do just that. I know that in writing these posts, I’ve learned quite a bit about our country and myself.
Tell me your vocabulary!
Have thoughts on a word that needs to be featured? Email me at thecitizensstory@gmail.com. If you’re a teacher, please ask your students their thoughts on these words and pass them along to me! And tell me what you and your students think our the words we all need to understand better!