I recently had the opportunity and honor to participate in a community service program that delivered dictionaries to third graders in our local schools.

The children were very excited to receive an early Christmas present and surprised some of us by actually knowing what a dictionary is and how it can be used.

The reason I was surprised is that there is no clear indication that many adults know how to use a dictionary or they have just grown too complacent to care about the meaning of words.

Political correctness has become so invasive in our culture that we can no longer define or discuss things in plain English and we need to learn an array of “alternate phrases” to talk about common, everyday issues and concepts.

My most recent exposure was from a group of singers who revised the song “Deck the Halls” so that we would “don we now our bright apparel.” Apparently we are no longer allowed to use the word “gay” in its primary meaning, for fear someone might misunderstand.

The word “political” deals with the study, structure or affairs of government, politics or the state. The word “correct” has the primary meaning of “to remove errors from” and when used as a verb, “to make adjustments (compensate)”.

Thus we have our term “politically correct” meaning to compensate or correct for the affairs of politics or the state.

It does seem a bit in conflict with the larger understanding and protections of speech, especially political speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

In reality, the first casualty of political correctness is that very protection of free speech. Are we so willing to abolish a basic right just to avoid speaking the truth?

Another word we seem to have lost touch with is “terrorism.” That word means “systematic use of violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve an end.” Please note that there is no direct link to any religious or secular group but that the end result is the primary factor.

It should be clear that the operating agenda of Al- Qaida is terrorism. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless arm and a fundamentalist Sunni movement calling for global jihad.

Al-Qaida does not encompass all members of the Sunni sect, but those who follow the Al-Qaida agenda cannot be identified as other than terrorists. Any military effort to counter that terrorist threat would be properly defined as a war on terror.

Why is that concept so hard to grasp?

Another oft misdirected word is “choice.” Simply put, it is the right to choose among various options. Note that it does not establish a specific frame of reference of time for making the choice decision.

In our current “politically correct” world, we have allowed the word to be so limited as to apply only to certain events at certain times. In reality, when we make application in that manner, we forget that life is a series of choices and compromises.

When we fall back on a right of a single “choice” to provide release from responsibility for prior choice decisions we are misusing the language. The individual who exercises the “choice” to show remorse for criminal misdeeds (a matter of previous choice) during the sentencing phase of his trial, does not have the prior poor decisions removed.

So it must be with all of the decisions we make in life. It may be “politically correct” to invent language subterfuge to excuse poor personal decision making. But it is not logical.

It is actually the first step in the destruction of a culture that relies on individual integrity and self–discipline for its continued existence. The Roman Empire and all others before and since did not fall because they grew weak. Empires, countries, and cultures fall when the people forget or actively reject what made them strong and unique in the first place.

Might I suggest that before we accept anymore alternate meanings for our common language, we first understand the actual meaning of our words. With out that understanding we will lose the ability to communicate.

You see, words really do have meaning.