The Words That Shape Our Lives

by Aliza Davidovit
It has often been said that sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never harm you. But perhaps that’s a rhyme we should stop telling kids because, frankly, it is not true.

We have only to look back to the book of Genesis to see how powerful words are. God created the WORLD itself through words: God SAID let there be light and there was light. And with words He spoke each thing into existence.

If this past week has shown us anything, it is that the power of words and the power of silence really do shape the world we live in.

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, we not only celebrated the life of a man, but the life of his words. “I have a dream” were words which once landed ON people’s hearts but took 46 years to get INTO people’s hearts. Nonetheless, they prevailed-- and with the election of Obama freedom did ring -- and words breathed history into life.


And Obama too gave us words to hope by, such as, “Change we need,” and “Yes we can.” But short of “Bush” whacking the definition of “change” went undefined and “what we can” is still a mystery. Nonetheless, America pinned its future on nice sounding slogans and Obama climbed his way to the top, not by experience, but by one sound bite at a time. And, we, still not quite sure of what we heard, have yet to see whether well-spoken words will help our economy, whether rhythmic rhetoric will keep us safe, and whether the gift of gab will turn Ahmadinejad and his like into Gandhis.
And then there are the “peaceful” word warriors at the UN whose favorite words, as regards Israel, were repeated once again: “disproportionate use of force.” The UN bangs those words on Israel like a rubber stamp that inks itself only in Palestinian blood (never victimized Israelis). They are pre-typeset words which can never accommodate truth or objectivity.
But when we fail to fix the falsehoods of words they become realities, they become accepted, they become truth. After Israel won the ’67 war, there was rare an Israeli who termed the West Bank or Gaza “occupied territories” but their Palestinian opponents fought harder and WON the word war. Now even the Israeli’s have adopted the word “occupied” into their terminology. Compounding that is the term “Palestinian” itself. Palestinians weren’t even called Palestinians. Until 30 some odd years ago, they were Jordanians and Egyptians. From this repeated appropriation that went unchallenged a new reality created itself in the Middle East.

And now a new war of words rages in the Gaza post Operation Cast Lead: Hamas declares a “victory” and Israel declares “objectives accomplished.”
Perhaps we have only to look back to Hitler to see how powerful words really are. Hitler did not begin his war against the Jews by sending them to gas chambers, he began it with hateful talk which paved the path to the ovens, proving that words are not benign and that they may very well be even mightier than the sword.
It may be intersting to note that the words abracadabra are Aramaic words which mean “I create as I speak.”
The power of words becomes evermore clear when they are left out. This week in China certain words were censored from Obama’s inauguration speech because they were deemed “anti-communism.”
While this week in the Netherlands a Dutch lawmaker was tried for insulting Islam and may soon be silenced by a prison term.
And just when we thought it only happens elsewhere, this week over a dozen radio STATIONS censored Rush Limbaugh’s commentary on the inauguration. Why? Because, he is among the few savvy listeners who didn’t tattoo “Yes we can” on his posterior.
And it gets much more upsetting because now President Obama himself warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to Rush Limbaugh. My dear listeners, sissent is the vital sign of a democracy and if Obama seeks to silence opponent,s I can only caution all to keep our ears evermore wide open before we are sweet talked into making a country we don’t recognize.
But the highlight of the week was not the silencing of words, but when silence itself was silenced. An Illinois judge made a ruling that prevents students from partaking in a moment of silence in class because it might lead to prayer.
Our mission is clear. Lady Liberty cannot allow talented orators to whisper sweet nothings in her ear. We must bite back at every sound bite. Let’s not forget how the serpent’s smart words seduced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and drove mankind from Eden. Our task is to keep our ears perked up to listen NOT only to what is BEING said but to what is NOT being said to ensure that THE words that shape our lives and gain our trust SAY what they mean and mean what they say.

Luckily, today we can fight back word for word. With blogs, diggs, texts, Facebook, and IM’s we can introduce our own words into the vocabulary that shapes our lives. We can Twitter til our twits end.

And I assure you, that THESE are words to live by.