Notes & Asides.n Dear Mr. Buckley: Now that "begging the question" and "reason why" have been cleared up, I wonder if you could help me with my own personal head-scratcher. Why is it okay to say "people of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) people of colour, colour, color race - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important ," but not "colored people"? What's the difference? Best regards, Carlo Iorio Sun City, Ariz. Dear Mr. Iorio: A good point. The only obvious reason would appear to be that the term "colored people" was around back in Jim Crow days. I continue to use it, mostly out of habit, having heard it all through my youth in South Carolina; and it is not completely abolished, viz., the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and segregation. . "People of color" is not usable by anyone with even moderate euphonic eu·pho·ny n. pl. eu·pho·nies Agreeable sound, especially in the phonetic quality of words. [French euphonie, from Late Latin euph sensibility, besides which, it sounds pompous. Ditto "African- Americans." So I do "black" or "colored," and I very much hope I don't give offense. Those who are looking to be offended can always find a casus belli. On stage (Firing Line) 30 years ago, when I introduced Jesse Jackson as a prominent Negro, he raised his hand and said not to use that term anymore. Fair enough, the anti-Negro protocol was just setting in. If I had written Huckleberry huckleberry, any plant of the genus Gaylussacia, shrubs of the family Ericaceae (heath family), native to North and South America. The box huckleberry (G. brachycera) of E North America is evergreen and is often cultivated. The common huckleberry (G. Finn, I might object, but have no reason to do so. Cordially, WFB WFB Warhammer: Fantasy Battle (game) WFB World Fellowship of Buddhists WFB Wells Fargo Bank WFB William Frank Buckley (founder and editor of National Review Magazine) WFB WorkFlow Builder n Dear Mr. Buckley: In reference to the letter of James Neely (Aug. 6), I must have missed the original discussion of the "longstanding mystery of how to parse He is risen For the religious phrase, see . "He Is Risen" is the thirty-fourth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the eighth of the show's third season. It was written by Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess and Todd A. ." Even without a knowledge of Greek, a glance at a commentary on the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection could have cleared up the mystery. I'm not clear what Dr. Neely means by describing "He arose" as a passive verb, intransitive in·tran·si·tive adj. Abbr. intr. or int. or i. Designating a verb or verb construction that does not require or cannot take a direct object, as snow or sleep. n. An intransitive verb. in force. In any event, only the translation "He has been raised" is correct, since it represents what is called a "divine passive," i.e., a passive with the divine agent unexpressed (as in "Hallowed be thy name"), a common usage in both Testaments. The point of the passive verb is that God raised Jesus from the dead. Sincerely, Prof. John S. Kselman Weston Jesuit School of Theology Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a graduate divinity school and an ecclesiastical faculty and theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for service, especially for the Roman Catholic Church. Cambridge, Mass. Dear Mr. Buckley: There seems to be a minor controversy anent a·nent prep. Regarding; concerning: "This question remains a vital consideration anent the debate over the possibility of limiting nuclear war to military objectives" New York Times. the origin of the Biblical phrase "He is risen." According to my college French teacher, the grammatical structures are French, coming into the English language after the Norman conquest. "To rise" (se lever) is reflexive, thus requiring the verb "to be" (etre), or, in the third person singular, "is." Sam Woods Los Angeles, Calif. Dear Mr. Buckley: Having little Latin and less Greek, I didn't quite understand Dr. Neely's explanation. However, I was in one of the last generations required to diagram sentences in elementary school, and can offer a simple schoolboy understanding. The sentence may be parsed in two complementary, virtually synonymous, ways: 1) "risen" is a past participle used as a predicate adjective modifying "He"; 2) "is risen" is the perfect tense of an intransitive verb using, as was customary in Elizabethan and Jacobean English, the auxiliary verb "to be" rather than "to have." James Redding Redding, city (1990 pop. 66,462), seat of Shasta co., N central Calif., on the Sacramento River; inc. 1872. A principal tourist center for a mountain and lake region, it also has lumbering, food-processing, and diverse manufacturing. Granville, N.Y. n Dear Mr. Buckley: William C. Dawson Jr.'s attempt (July 23) to hang a hamartia hamartia /ham·ar·tia/ (ham-ahr´she-ah) defect in tissue combination during development.hamar´tial ha·mar·ti·a n. on NR's impeccant reputation fell short. He claims his life was ruined when NR used "hung" rather than "hanged" in reference to an execution. Perhaps he can be assuaged by understanding that "hanged" is the capital aspect of the punishment, and comes into being only at the terminus of this impressive procedure. It's the destination, not the journey: A person is hung by the neck until hanged. Julian Schmidt Treynor, Iowa Dear Mr. Schmidt: Thanks for getting that straight. Cordially, -WFB |
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