Word Power

Every now and then — well, probably more often than that — public discourse settles upon the wrong word to describe something important. Using the wrong word makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, to have an intelligent and productive exchange of ideas. Such is the case with the Gulf catastrophe. At some subliminal level I had hesitated a fraction of a second before using the word "spill," but mentally shrugged and went ahead and used it anyway. Like everybody else. That was a mistake. As Jill Schneiderman points out, in an absolutely brilliant, perfectly simple observation, it's not a spill: It's a gusher, or a blowout, or something along those lines. The earth's crust is cracked, a mind-boggling volume of oil has started to leak out. It might even leak a billion barrels. We just don't know. And we really don't know how to fix it... Thanks, Jill, and Kudos to you! The word "spill" shall now be retired, at least on this blog.