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We Can’t Always Face the Facts
By Ursula B.G. Kilner, Salisbury
When I was a child going to Sunday School I asked about something which puzzled me. Why was "Good Friday" good when that was the day Jesus died? Who named that day, the saddest day in the Christian calendar, "good"? I never got an answer.
One of the next times I was puzzled by word usage came in World War II. I had many classmates overseas, and a couple of them were killed by "friendly fire." How could someone be killed by something "friendly"? Answer: common usage.
The third thing which has long bothered me is the statement that fellows I knew who were going overseas would be "in harm's way." Answer again: common usage.
I hunted for the origin of Good Friday. I looked in a biblical dictionary—nothing, believe it or not! I looked in a Bible that was profusely annotated—nothing! Where I found the meaning of Good Friday, after all these years of wondering off and on, was in The Encyclopedia Americana, which explained that Good Friday was a corruption of "God's Friday," the day that Jesus died. The day was considered "God's," as He controlled the death of His only Son. The explanation did not say how the word "God" got corrupted into "Good," but words so often get changed in writing and in everyday usage that I could understand how that might well happen.
"Friendly fire" was explained to me by an army colonel. He said, "It would not sound right if we said, ‘Our own guns killed our own men.’" That is all well and good, but no matter: the firing of a howitzer, cannon, bomb, bullet or whatever—even when it is performed by our own troops—seems to me scarcely "friendly."
When we lived at West Point, the firing ranges' schedules were posted every day. The ranges were set up on farms taken over by the Army and there were still many bushes and trees bearing delicious fruit, but it was a poor idea to go fruit-picking on a day when that particular range was being actively used with live ammunition. One of the problems that occurred was caused by the cadets using a larger gauge ammunition (for example, charge five instead of charge four) than they should. More than once when we lived there, the "fire" would land in Highland Falls (the town next to West Point), usually on the highway. I never heard of anyone hurt, but had there been, that would have been another incident caused by "friendly fire." Even if one were picking blueberries, a cannonball (or whatever—I am not versed in ammunition language) that came plunk down nearby could be called "friendly fire."
When we (the United States of America) are in a war, as we are at present, the media (all kinds, whether printed, or on the screen, or on radio) often refer to "our boys" (which they are not—they are men), who are said to have been sent into "harm's way." Maybe some men in uniform enjoy being called "boys," but this was certainly not true of the many I have known. However, this euphemism of "going into harm's way"—as a substitute for saying or writing "going into death's path"—scarcely describes the horror, fear and terror which fill the heart and soul of any man in war service. It takes great courage and determination to march, fly or crawl "into harm's way." (By the way, a committee in Congress is now contemplating a law that would prohibit women in military service from engaging in activity that might put them "in harm's way.")
English is probably the most explicit language in the world, as it has gracefully absorbed words from many other languages. The fact that we use euphemisms when we have exact terms for any and every situation shows that we cannot, or will not, always face facts.
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