Disambiguate

Yes, it’s true – I have a new favorite word du jour and I’m fixin’ ta go on ad nauseum about how cool it is. Sorry. But then, not so much.

Sorry, that is.

I’ve always sorta liked this word. I love words in general but this one is not only cool sounding, but its meaning is something I can definitely get behind.

In the transitive verb form (alright, I looked that part up, what of it?) it’s disambiguate, which is to make less ambiguous. Which is to make more clear. Direct, even.

I wish the folks on the extreme fringy right would get behind disambiguation. I wish they would just come out and say what the rest of us know – that they don’t really give a rodent’s rear end for the Constitution, and in fact, they don’t really understand the whole point of it. Which is this:

Government exists to organize the factors that must be organized in order to allow us to live together in relative peace and prosperity, and to take advantage of the economy of scale and buying power that allows us to provide ourselves with the things that all of us need collectively and none of us could afford individually. Things like roads, public education and national defense.

Government does not exist to allow a bunch of self-absorbed yahoos to shape our self-governance on the basis of their favorite prejudices or their deeply held religious superstitions. And in every case you can name in which government is based on or subordinate to religious tradition, I will be glad to point out the segment of that society that is being subjugated.   

If that’s not enough disambiguation, let me try this: I worship neither Gods nor flags. I believe deeply in this society and our Constitution. I hope both can survive this swing to the right. Because I would give my life to defend this country but I don’t pray and I don’t pledge allegiance to scraps of cloth.

I’m not a committed – or even comfortable – Democrat. It’s tragic to me to have to vote for candidates while holding my nose. But the folks who have misappropriated the name Tea Party have made clear that if they take over, ultimately they’d be putting people like me in camps. They claim to be for personal freedom but what they’re for is the freedom to force the rest of us to toe their mark.

Sorry for the rant. I promise to be more antidisambiguous another time.
Or not.