Walking Away from the Fiscal Cliff: Two Victories

I'm not a fan of media-or publicist-created terms that are then propagated by the media themselves.  Are you as tired as I am of hearing about the so-called "fiscal cliff"?  As far as the politics of the whole fiscal cliff mess, I guess I have lived long enough to recognize political frenzy to accomplish a task that could and should have been accomplished weeks earlier.  It's the term fiscal cliff  itself that has bugged me.

However, perhaps because of the general good cheer of the Christmas season, I have found a couple of victories to claim from the fiscal cliff frenzy:

A Word Correctly Used

Victory #1: The word fiscal itself, used correctly.  I can't tell you how much it has bugged me for years to hear otherwise very intelligent people talking about the end of their company's physical year.  Perhaps the fiscal cliff talk will lead to a more proper use of the word fiscal in general.  Here's hoping.

Disclaimer: Although I have not been an English teacher for over 10 years now, the misuse of the English language still bothers me.  I have gotten better about correcting people, but you have to understand how far I had to come to get to this point: I corrected my wife's first love letter to me -- she didn't think it was funny like I did, but I digress.

Fiscal is not the only word that otherwise intelligent people butcher:

• School administrators (all intelligent individuals) who sought recognition from accrediting agencies called the process accredidation.
• I know that Alzheimer's is not the easiest word to say, but as many people as not say Alltimer's instead.  I think the etymology of this mispronunciation can probably be traced to some originally referring to the disease as "Old-timers."  (This is one that you and I should be careful not to correct in conversation because, chances are, the person saying this word is dealing with a family member with this cruel disease.  Having had a family member who had Alzheimer's, I can say that dealing with the disease with love and compassion is much more important that pronouncing it correctly.  See, I try to not be a chump.)
• Here's my current #1 language pet peeve: "all of the sudden."  I don't know when the proliferation of the misuse of the phrase "all of a sudden" began -- I first noticed it about three or four years ago -- but it has spread like wildfire.  (Interestingly enough, the phrase began in the 1500's as "the sudden."  Maybe everyone saying "all of the sudden" is just trying to get back to the roots of the phrase. . .you think?)

See how easy I can still get off track with grammar issues?  Remember, I'm still in recovery.  Be patient with me.  I have probably misused some part of the language in this post itself.  Now, where was I. . .

A Second Victory

Oh, yes, there was a second victory from all the fiscal cliff pandemonium.  This one is serious and meaningful to the movement of Americans toward orphaned children both in the U.S. and around the world. 

The adoption tax credit has been made permanent!

Jedd Medefind, the president of Christian Alliance for Orphans, has written about the specifics of this part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (How many of you knew the fiscal cliff bill had a name?) on the CAFO blog.  It's well worth the minute or two that it will take for you to educate yourself on this important piece of a much-maligned piece of legislation.

I'm not typically much of an advocate on political issues -- call me a cynic -- but I wrote both of my senators and my Congressman on the specific issue of preserving the adoption tax credit.  I did not get a response from one of my senators, and I received a poorly copied and pasted email from the other.  However, I got a personal phone call (that I missed) and a voice mail from Rep. Alan Nunnallee's office that laid out his recognition of the importance of the issue to his constituents. 

The message also reminded me that the adoption tax credit would be part of a much larger bill that might affect how the Congressman voted on the overall bill.  Understood but still not a comforting thought. Regardless of our confidence in the rest of the "fiscal cliff" legislation, orphan care advocates must say specifically on the adoption tax credit portion of the law: They got this part right!

Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al