Up, up and away

My friend Cary Miller sent an e-mail about a single word. I learned "up" can be an adverb, preposition, adjective, noun or verb. We use the word when waking up, speaking up, opening up a store in the morning (and closing it up in the evening), building up, storing up, fixing up, the weather is clouding up (and then clearing up) and wrapping up a present or a project. There are more usages because "up" takes up a quarter page in a desk-sized dictionary and adds up to 30 definitions. But here is one more for Cary's list, to "man up," as used in Nevada by a disrespectful substitute teacher and alleged candidate for high office, Sharron Angle, to her very distinguished opponent, the United States Senate Majority leader.

Henry Reid was raised in Searchlight, Nev., a mining town, the son of a hard rock miner. Miners' sons do not usually need manning up; manning down is sometimes more desirable. Searchlight had no high school so Reid boarded in Henderson where he became a pretty good boxer, not an unmanly sport. After high school, he earned a bachelor's degree at Utah State, where the school mascot is a gelding (just kidding) thanks to scholarships and jobs. He then earned a law degree from George Washington University, a manly school, working his way through as a police officer, a manly profession. He was elected to the House in 1982, the Senate in 1986 and won his fourth term in November. If Angle had been elected, she would not have become Senate Majority leader; that observation is necessary because some terminally stupid Washington voters thought when they unseated Rep. Tom Foley that his successor would also replace him as Speaker of the House. Instead, when Foley disappeared from the House, earmarked funds for cleaning up Hanford disappeared along with him. His opponents thought it was worth it; those who lost their jobs likely did not.

"Man up?" In 1954, Joseph Welch said to Senator Joe McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Change it to ma'am. Henry Reid did not need to "man up" and Sharron Angle was rude and disrespectful for engaging in a personal and offensive attack. Washing her mouth out with soap occurs as a remedy. Reid was too much the gentleman to utter a rejoinder such as, "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine and you're no Jack Kennedy." (Bentsen to Quayle, 2004) But I would be curious to see how Nevada would react to "Woman up, Ms. Angle."

I guess I need to admit, reluctantly, that nowadays rudeness is often mistaken for intestinal fortitude or moxie. And kindness, gentleness and patience are as often mistaken for weakness. Giving credit where it is due, Sarah Palin asked Joe Biden in their first debate if she could call him Joe. That showed respect.

I once mentioned the "Smithsonian Institution" in Sandpoint before a large audience and was loudly corrected by an audience member to "Institute," which is not correct. The woman who "corrected" me later apologized, not for interrupting but for being wrong, which I found bizarre; one might ask why she did not apologize publicly in front of the same group. Another time I referred to the two "sexes" and someone "corrected" my diction to "genders." On another occasion an audience member corrected my use of "nonprofit" to "not-for-profit," a term the IRS does not recognize. A Representative shouted, "You lie," to President Obama during a State of the Union address and a Justice of the Supreme Court was nearly as rude. Sit down and shut up, folks; your chance will come soon enough.

Tim Hunt, the son of a linotype operator, is a retired college professor and nonprofit administrator who lives in Hayden with his wife and three cats. He can be reached at linotype.hunt785@gmail.com.