Thursday, September 03, 2009

Incongruous

in⋅con⋅gru⋅ous [in-kong-groo-uhs]
–adjective

1. out of keeping or place; inappropriate; unbecoming: an incongruous effect; incongruous behavior.
2. not harmonious in character; inconsonant; lacking harmony of parts: an incongruous mixture of architectural styles.
3. inconsistent: actions that were incongruous with their professed principles.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1605–15; L incongruus inconsistent. See in- 3 , congruous

Related forms:

in⋅con⋅gru⋅ous⋅ly, adverb
in⋅con⋅gru⋅ous⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. discrepant, unsuitable, ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd.
2. inharmonious, discordant.
3. contrary, contradictory.

See inconsistent.

Antonyms:
1. becoming, appropriate.
2. consonant.
3. consistent.

Every time I think it is settling down, something new comes along that leaves me shaking my head. Is it possible that there will ever be an actual "uniter" in the White House ever again? Neither the right nor the left wants to be united.

The latest salvo in the battle of witlessness is over the speech the president is planning on delivering next Tuesday. According to the White House press release:

...President Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of taking responsibility for their success in school on Tuesday, September 8th at 12:00 PM EDT at Wakefield High School in Arlington.

The problem is that no matter what the president does, the radical factions on the right ascribe ulterior motives to it. What? You doubt me!? Well, let's see... a speech to students on the importance of continuing your education on the occasion of the start of the school year. Not an unheard of thing... the last two presidents gave education priority in their agendas. (This is true, even if you do not agree with what they actually put into place.)

President Push (41st president) actually even addressed the returning students at the beginning of the school year on the importance of their getting an education. So what the president is proposing is not radical, it is not even original.

So why at five o'clock in the morning am I watching a tearful couple discussing how on the day of the speech (next Tuesday) they will be keeping their children home from school?

The tearful wife cries "I’m an American, they’re Americans and I don’t feel that that is okay. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now." It is as if they are afraid that just by seeing the president speak, their precious students may be turned liberal or something. (I wonder if these are the same people who believe that seeing a Broadway play will turn their children gay. But I digress...)

What are they afraid of? That their children may be told that staying in school and learning is a good thing? I can understand how being told to think for yourself would be scary to anyone who has been indoctrinated to accept what they are told. If you believe whatever you hear no matter how implausible it is (like 90% of everything that is broadcast on Fox News) you would naturally fear somebody telling your children to use their brains.

The point is, it doesn't matter what the president wants to say. There are people on the left that will accept it as gospel (even if he told us that the earth had three moons) and there are people on the right who (even if the president said that the earth was a roughly ovoid sphere) would dismiss it as liberal propaganda just because he had said it. I fear the days of having a president who could unite the country may have come to an end. And that is a real shame too! We do such wonderful things as a country united!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you will keep an open mind and think for yourself!

Don Bergquist - September 03, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

No comments: