Thursday, February 26

Why is President Obama being referred to as president?

I spend a large portion of my day reading op-ed's in many of the nations major city papers. I read to learn what is on the mind of the public in these city's and to find new ideas and understanding. I generally research what I find and spend time writing posts both here and on any one of the dozen other blogs and websites I run so that I can at least present new thoughts and opinions.

Recently I have been observing a trend that I am not that happy with. Many of the writers are presenting President Obama with a lower case p. The do not preface former President Bush with a lower case p even in the same articles. let me give you and example from an editorial I found today in the New York times.

My question is why? As grade schoolers we were taught to respect the office even if we did not respect the man, and we were instructed that when referring to the President of a nation we were to use a capitol P. At least I was taught this, perhaps my teachers were wrong.

As one of my professors once told me "the language of a nation is a precursor to it's course". If that is true than am I to assume that the respect for our nations newest leader is going to start declining so early in his term as President?

1 comment:

  1. I'm so glad I'm not the only one that realized this ;-) I know that folks don't respect or like President Obama. The fact that they use a lower case letter when speaking about him is more than enough proof of the media's feelings about Obama. I remember, as a kid,a man told me "black guys always say 'respect me...I'm a man' and in my book you have to earn my respect to get it my respect." While I understand that logic, folks take too much on face value. When Bush, Clinton, Regan and Carter were in office it was always "Mr President". We'll see how it goes in his next 4 years. Oh yes, it's real ;-)

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