Do you ever have allergic reactions to words? I do. The ones
that usually make me itch are the pseudo-intellectual trendy expressions like
“gravitas” or “meme,” but lately the word that’s been giving me hives is a
simple old Anglo-Saxon word – “fair.”
In fact when it’s coupled with another old word, “share,” it makes my
skin positively crawl. It’s an expression a 4-year-old would use and
demonstrates about the same level of economic awareness. What’s worse, it’s our
president who’s using it.
It’s true that fairness is a value buried in the hearts of
all decent people; even small children are deeply aware of its importance. When
my youngest granddaughter was little more than a year old she expressed her
sense of outraged justice one day when she saw her older sister enjoying a
lollypop. They’d both been given one the night before and wise Julia had saved
some of hers for the next day. Little Violet hadn’t planned that well and had
finished hers off before bed. When her mother told her no, she couldn’t have
another one, her eyes filled with tears, her lower lip quivered and with great
indignation she said her first sentence – “Julia lolly.”
