By Karen Love
Special to the Herald

This has been a divisive year for the USA, though luckily, much of the national nastiness passed Benicia by. In that context, I cannot let Dennis Lund’s mean-spirited column of Dec. 27 go without a rebuttal. He chose 12 words and phrases to lose in 2017, and in doing so tweaked and insulted over half of the electorate. So here we go, a word-by-word response.

Transparency: Agree—let’s go with Lund’s replacement, “honesty.”

Alt-Right: Lund says this word “was co-opted by the political left to use as a derogatory term synonymous with white supremacy.” Quite the contrary—this non-word was invented by the extreme right as cover for the true intent of their white supremacist branch– its publications, speech and members. Many on the left and some traditional conservatives have begged the mainstream media to discontinue use of this word, which downplays the evil of the white supremacy movement.

Diversity: In a state as culturally rich as California, I do not know how anyone can claim diversity is negative. There are many places in this nation where diversity of race, ideas, background IS non-existent. California is NOT one of those places. If Lund is looking for a homogeneous environment, well, move to Idaho!

Income Inequality: Lund dismisses this as a non-issue by quoting something Margaret Thatcher said in 1990, when income inequality was not at today’s breathtaking levels. One does not have to be a Bernie Sanders social Democrat to understand that throughout history, the income and wealth disparity currently in place in the USA leads nations down very bad paths.

White Privilege: Lund says this phrase is “meant to diminish achievement while ignoring efforts contributing to success.” A successful nation (or person for that matter) is one who can learn from past mistakes and look errors boldly in the eye. To deny the often codified superior position of white males in our history is delusional. Indian reservations? The Chinese Exclusion laws? Japanese internment camps? Slavery? Dred Scott? Plessy v. Ferguson? Jim Crow laws? A segregated military until after World War II? Housing, education and employment discrimination? Ongoing voter restrictions in the former states of the Confederacy? I say this: brave American patriots understand the enormous cost of historic white supremacy (for which there is no PC word); celebrate mid-20th century corrections; and welcome ongoing updates, which in fact, benefit all of us.

Free: Implying that those who send their kids to public schools do so because “someone else pays” belies our historic and, in its day, revolutionary commitment to educating ALL our children. Nobody says public education is free—we all know that schools are supported by taxes, which 100 percent of us pay in one form or another. Truly, public education is priceless; it is an investment in our future, of which we should all be proud.

Bullying: “Get over it!,” Lund seems to shout from the page. I am confused. Is Lund in favor of bullying, as his snarky commentary indicates?

Boots on the Ground: Agree–this dehumanizes the less than 1 percent of Americans who are on active military duty at any given time. But I sure hope Lund is not accusing PC liberals of coining this phrase. That honor goes to General William Westmoreland (certainly nobody’s idea of a lefty) during the Vietnam War.

With All Due Respect: Agree—let’s get rid of this. Using it shows the speaker actually has no respect for the other person’s point of view, although the delivery of the opinion is preceded by faux politeness.

My Bad: Agree– whatever happened to proudly, honestly, firmly saying “I’m sorry”?

Faithless Electors: The reason this word only recently entered our lexicon is because of the unusual circumstances of this electoral season. Twice in our first 211 years, the Electoral College and the popular vote did not match. The last time it happened before 2000 was in 1888– 112 years prior. Now this former anomaly has happened twice (to Democrats) in just 16 years. It is not sour grapes to challenge a system that was put in place to mollify the slave-holding states when the Constitution was ratified. (See white supremacy tab above) Serious people from both political parties should consider changes that will bring our electoral system in line with today’s time, as the Framers intended when they wrote an amendable Constitution.

Hope and Change: Perhaps this phrase has become a cliché whose time has passed. But for Lund to end his column by wishing Mr. and Mrs. Obama “good riddance” is completely out of line. They have faithfully served our country for eight years, and deserve our respect and gratitude, even from those who disagree with every one of their policies and ideas. Lund’s insults are in the camp of Buffalo school board member Carl Paladino, who hoped Michelle would “return to Zimbabwe;” (See white supremacy tab) and that Barack would “die of mad cow disease.”
Is this the way Lund intends to wish his readers and America a happy new year? If so, I have a one-word reply that never goes out of fashion: YUCK.

Karen Love has lived in Benicia for 16 years. She is a small-business owner and active community volunteer.

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