“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.”—Sarah Palin, Twitter post July 18, 2010, quoted in “Sarah Palin Calls on 'Peaceful Muslims' to 'Refudiate' Their Own Religion,” "Little Green Footballs" blog, July 18, 2010
For a long time, I’ve felt, after watching thank-yous at the Oscars, that actors should not be allowed anywhere near a computer because of the damage they might do to the English language. Now comes Sarah Palin, making me wonder if the same restriction should apply to politicians.
In his great essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell noted that “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” I suppose that Sassy Sarah’s tweet—calling on the abandonment of the mosque near the World Trade Center, in a country dedicated to freedom of religion—constitutes that.
But most of all, I think Orwell would break out in bitter laughter, not just at this tweet—which, Palin might have argued, was simply a typo—but by its follow-up correction, which called on “Peaceful New Yorkers” to “refute” the plan. It somehow escaped the former Vice-Presidential candidate's notice that the verb was still incorrect.
Someone wasn’t paying attention in English class in some Alaskan high school 30 years ago…
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