Editorial opinion How ironic that the Department of Nursing should find itself plagued by an internal illness. Outward symptoms of the disease may come in the form of a missing department' head or irregular filing procedures. Victims of the disease have been known to suffer from loss of accreditation or approval. It is also important to note that the malady is contagious; it adversely affects all those who come in contact with it. Late last year, the head of-the Department of Nursing resigned and was replaced by an acting head an understandable and wise move at the time. But nine months later, the department is still directed by that temporary replacement. Nine 0% 1 ‘ JS® ft <*° * A toilet by any other name just ain't the same ' At a time when the English language is abused as never before, when Jargonand doubletalk are.surging and precise speech and writing are gradually eroding away, the American public is beset by a class of idiom perpetrated by the ad advertising and promotion Industries and condoned by govern ment. Euphemisms. Perversions of speech that obscure meanings and remove many of the picturesque elements from description and general conversation. Dictionaries call euphemisms "words substituted for more plainly explicit words which might prove offensive to some readers or listeners," and there are, admittedly, rare cases in which the more descriptive, precise word is simply too earthy for the sensibilities of some. The sad truth, though, Is that more and more Americans are mistreating the language and with the help of Madison Avenue and Washington D. C., euphemisms are beginning to take a harsh toll on American speech and letters. The creation of euphemisms and their quick absorption Into the culture is frightening. The Dictionary of Contemporary Usage provides some excellent examples. A used, second or third-hand car is never “used” anymore. It is only pre-owned (even if it has 98,000 miles on the odometer and a paint job that makes it look like It’s been sandblasted with half-inch ball bearings). A sewer commission is now a pollution-control agency. People are no longer fired from their jobs, or even "terminated.” They’re riffed, an acronym for "reduction in force." Or better still, “selected out,” a term with widespread use, especially in government. "SENATOR. IT WAS OUSTSOME CWKPDT fWI 6EOR3/A WHO VINttW YOU TO SO RUNNING- WITH HIM,, T v Heal thyself months later, a search for a per manent head has yielded only two 'possible candidates. And, most importantly, nine months later finds Penn State’s Department of Nursing faced with possible loss of approval by the State Board of Nurse Examiners and loss of accreditation by the National League for Nursing. Both groups require that all nurs ing institutions have permanent, not "acting,” directors, before they give the school their okay. Their approval is not something to be taken lightly; it is not merely a glorified certificate of achieve ment. Rather, it is a vitally neces sary tbol for the proper functioning of the department. Above all, it is crucial for the students. Of course, there haven't been any janitors around for years. They all died one sad day and were reincarnated the next as “maintenance superintendents” or simply, “supers,” a word with wonderfully powerful and pleasant, though usually Inaccurate, connotations. Plumbers are "sanitation engineers" and a trash can is an "ecological receptacle,” in fact, one wlth- It garbage man, in an attempt to cash in on the science and engineering booms of the past decade, has labeled himself a “garbologlst" and adopted the slogan “Satisfaction guaranteed or your garbage refunded." America’s unfortunate folly in Indochina spawned literally hundreds of euphemisms. After awhile the military establish ment began to get embarassed about reporting the destruction of native junks, sampans and other small boats by supersonic warplanes—it was a little like swatting a fly with a baseball bat and grouped all of these boats into a false category they labeled “wiblics,” a failed acronym for Water Borne Logistical Craft. It seems that to “clear a wibllc” Is much more impressive than to simply blow a sampan to bits. Search and destroy missions became too ruthless an ap- Graduates from non-approved schools may not take state nursing exams. They may not legally become licensed registered nurs es. And, chances are, they will be beaten out in the job market. Students in any discipline deserve no less than the best from their department. Their tuition check entitles them to adequate guidance AND to a guarantee that they are being prepared as adequately as possible for future employment. So far, two candidates have been suggested as permanent department heads. But first, the candidates must be interviewed by the faculty and, administration for the department and then approved by the Board of Trustees. for longer, w / wßdwqA S mjmbqr, I EDMUND J George Osgood However, the Trustees do not meet until September. The deadline for the appointment of a permanent director is Aug. 1. Department officials feel certain that Penn State’s Department of Nursing will retain its state ap proval. We hope so too. But the real issue is that they have let things go this far, that they had to be faced with a threat before they would act. Perhaps they are knotted up in red tape. Perhaps they are drowning in a whirlpool of bureaucracy. But those are only empty phrases to describe empty actions. The first of August is still a few weeks away. There is still time. Physician, heal thyself. Motorist fears Congress I was in a mellow mood the other day, cruising down Interstate 80 in the sunlight, watching the lines go by. Suddenly, without warning, something enormous shot by me with a roar and stench of burned rubber, it rattled my car, deafened my ears, and forced me off of the road. As I watched it dwindle in the distance, going about 80 miles per hour, I wondered, was It a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was a supertruck, an 80.886 pound, eight-foot wide, monstrous mass of metal. These beasts are the largest animals ever to ram the earth, dwarfing even the dinosaurs, and perhaps are the most dangerous. And, as if this weren't enough, there’s a move in Washington to make them wider and longer and heavier. The trucking industry, encouraged by but not satisfied with size increases granted to them by Congress last year, is pushing for special recommendations that would Increase the present 40-ton weight limit j to 60-tons by 1985. This overall increase in size Includes | an increase In width from 96 to 102 { inches, and virtually no limit to length./ Though most states ban trucks which/, are longer than 55 feet, the truck lobby Is trying to obtain permits for twin 40-foo/ trailers and even triples. I pellation when military efforts in Vietjm began to come under • but by that friendly tradesman, the "plumber." intense public scrutiny, so they and replaced by The list goes on and on, and is growing daily. There are “search and clear" missions. May bombing raids were even euphemisms for other euphemisms that fall out of favor "protective retaliations." The best simple that I came across Financially bereft people used to be poor. Then they became concerned the accidental shelling (f one U.S. position by “needy." Sociologists and psychiatrists evidently determined another. The Pentagon brass didn’t^ ll it "misdirected fire" or that to consider oneself “needy” was self-defeating and even a “regrettable error." It was tied, in true euphemistic unhealthy, so "needy” was scrapped In favor of “culturally fashion, "accidental delivery of ordface equipment." deprived.". But "deprived" created a bad image, so the poor Madison Avenue has had a pervs've Influence on American became “underprivileged” which itself became too descriptive .diction. Thanks to the ad'men, Nothing is ever "large” or and was changed to "disadvantaged." "cheap'," it’s “king-sized" or “ec/omy-prlced.” Clothes ate As the euphemisms accrue, the actual meaning of the not ticketed for fat boys but for “leky lads." Their fat fathers original word is further and further beclouded. It is the same don’t find any racks labeled "FaUut get their garments from with all euphemisms: their function is not one of clarification the “portly" or "big" sections. Pt an unspecified point In and description, but of imprecision, ambiguity and distortion their late thirties, women obese nor age, rather they Maury Maverick, a government agency head during the Forties “mature" and become "matrons.? nice, motherly ring to that, and Fifties, was angered by the spread of euphemisms, then Some of the best examples ohis calculated abuse of the called "gobbledegook language" (hence, euphemism is a English language came out of hearings and their euphemism for Itself) and threatened that "anyone using words aftermath. Burglary of a psychjrlst’s office was consistently like ’activation’ and ‘implementation’ will be shot.” referred to as an operation; "part of the That may be an extreme position, but It would solve a conspiracy that was called theWerall game plan." There was problem that has Increased tenfold since Maverick’s time a great tendency, for some ufiown reason, to create nearly Everyone ha 3 to pitch in and consciously strive to eliminate meaningless phrases rather tt> use a single, precise word or these bastard words from the American vocabulary. ' a commonly used, completeljdequate phrase. For example: The next time you feel the urge, don’t go to the powder “at this point In time (translate now); “at that point in time" room, don’t see a man about a dog, and please don’t go to the (translation: then); “electific surveillance" (translation: little girls’(or little boys’) room. Just go to the bathroom Or be wiretapping). Breaking andnterlng became "surreptitious even more descriptive and accurate. Gentility is one thing but entry" and was performed y. by political espionage agents, just as a rose is a rose is a rose, a toilet is, after all, a toilet’ Let/ers to the Editor Appreciation TO THE EDITOR: Tfjalntlng by fifteen year old Heather Fleming which was tin from the HUB has been recovered and will be returned tfer. The painting was abandoned In the Engineering Compleil We feel certain to your publishing a photograph of the painting In The Del Collegian on July 14, 1976 was In strumental In its pvery. We appreciate your help and assistance In this mjsr. V >jpple don't always disdain Cosmo 'ssexiat, but because It Is primarily f college woman. The disapproval Ms. Ig Cosmo was probably snobbery. You prd to serve a diplomatic dinner on T.V. led "college girl”, reading Cosmo Is ce owning “The Greatest Hits of the 'erybody sneers at the aspiratlone, >f the group below her or him In the Is as divisive as It Is unjust. But let’s be [ere, they didn’t actually disparage Ms. or them. lections to Cosmo are really class feepskins, nevertheless, there are some laints against the magazine. It’s bad and Penthouse treat women as another imodlty. The busty blonde Is Just another led along with a man’s Chivas Regal, is shoes. That Cosmo should encourage mselves as consumer goods Is revolting. Cosmo TO THE EDITO) magazine becauf It directed toward f nc Palencar felt whVbuyl wouldn't expectptty 1 trays, and forfcertl declasse. It's -fiber I Cupcakes." Afost I philosophy an tastf hierarchy. ThlfMituf fair to those P. re/ Palencar a f did If Granted Jny j prejudices cP in valid femlnjf cor enough thaflayb/ status-enheJsing < item to becons Cadillac an Adlr women to feat TH3 entire movement Is backed by the Ford administration, which, ''when confined with the influence to the truck - 'y assures that the -38 will pass. itlonal Highway Traffic ration reported this year i rate of nontruck par uck-car accidents In welght of the involved / Fact: Many truck drivers already object to driving with 80,000 pounds of [truck behind them. An Increase to [120,000 pounds would be Intolerable to many. I Fact: Regardless of any claims to the [contrary, a 60-ton vehicle will tear up the roads very quickly and efficiently. Of course, taxpayers’ money will be heeded to fix these roads. Any fuel economy resulting from supertrucks will be more than offset by the costs of accidents and road repairs. i David E. Sformar Director, Police Service *ON YOUR MAR<....<SBTSGT,...* ler super Tom Reeher The “layouts on sexy summer negligees" Ms. Palencar mentioned do just that. The Gothic Romances Inculcate a woman’s subconscious with sentimental claptrdp. They cloud her decision process with unrealizable expectations and give her fairy-tale princess role models. If any woman succeeded In becoming a “Cosmo Girl” she would be a fantastic creature Indeed a combination Valkyrie and Electric Penis- Sharpening Machine. This creature might well need Cosmo’s pyschology column. Liberation does come In many forms as Ms. Palencar suggested. However, rebaptlzing an old oppression and calling it a liberation Is the sort of hocus-pocus I would hope women could see through. If It’s embarrassing to wear chains, by all means, fet's call them jewelryl George Wallace can probably find a Black person somewhere who says that he really loves picking cotton and that everything since Brown.vs. the Board of Education has been an awful mistake, but at least Ebony doesn't propagandize for this point of view, why should women make sexist magazines profitable? As for the What-can-l-do-anyway syndrome, remember that Christianity was founded by an unemployed carpenter and his disreputable friends. Communism, before which we tremble, was started by a handful of bald men In baggy brown suits. If you’re not too far gone In resignation, the Women’s Resource' Center could direct you toward some worthwlle feminist projects, or make better use of your $1.25. JANICE SELINGER Summer Editor push trucks Someone is insulting my intelligence " when they tell me that a 60-ton super- « truck can roll down tt)e highway, and I > can’t even put studded safety tire’s on my . car. . To tell the truth, I’m scared to death of ' ’ those supertrucks. If you observe the 55 a mile per hour speed limit, it’s Impossible it to avoid them, and the safety hazard that >« they represent by going downhill at 80 mph and uphill at 30 mph is enormous. Oh, someone is sure to say that these trucks are an economical asset, that they’re benefitting me, the consumer, by r reducing overall costs, that they’re not 'ft really all that dangerous, that the truck „ driver’s skill will compensate for the size "" increases. Well, the fact is that they are Z dangerous. I cannot justify the loss of “1 even one human life by citing economic » gain. And I won’t compromise my a principles by cowering under the shadow ** of a 60-ton Mack truck, and I won’t bet «*» my life on the skill of any truck driver. » But I may have to. ** There will be a battle in Washington « between consumer representatives and truck lobbyists, and I’m afraid that that £ battle will be as uneven as the one Ks,< currently being fought on the highways EJ between the automobile and the supertruck. « Claudia McClallan Unlveralty Employee NADINE KINSEY Business Manager -a tdk 'le *S» <1 rm ** A) vt A. '-a fy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers