Sunday, September 24, 2006

The use and abuse of punctuation

When I write, punctuation matters! Over the course of my academic life and professional career, I have probably invested a lot of energy discerning whether the semicolon or hyphen would be more appropriate for a given situation. From today's blogosphere, here's a read on the appropriate use of the comma:

US President George Bush, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer:
"I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy."

Excuse me? The crisis in Iraq is just a comma? More US lives lost than on 9/11; we've lost count (or never even bothered to keep track) of Iraqis killed; billions of dollars spent on killing and torture, with more certain to follow; damage to the souls of all those who have been involved in these atrocities - and it's just a comma?

I rather prefer this use of the comma. May our Still Speaking God inform our cries for justice in the face of such arrogance.

p.s.: And for you grammar junkies out there, here's the scoop on the less politically fraught use of the ,

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Who knew their was such a thorough history of the comma out there? I won't waste my breath on Bush.