COVFEFE’S TWITTER-IN-CHIEF TRUMP & DUTERTE: BE CAREFUL WITH WORDS!
Even as we enjoy tons of YouTube videos and Instagram visuals in this 21st-century era, let us not forget the boundless importance and power of words to build or ruin, to educate and also to befuddle.
Two recent combustible words stoked intensely heated news — US President Donald Trump’s Tuesday post-midnight tweet of the inexplicable non-word “covfefe,” which exploded into the social media universe, uniting his vociferous critics as well as ardent admirers; and President Rody R. Duterte’s sarcastic remark mentioning “rape” in a speech to soldiers.
I suggest to these smart, pragmatic and overly loquacious presidents to heed the words of late Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist James Michener, who once said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” Think twice or thrice, that is, before speaking or tweeting. Whether in the frequent speeches or press interviews of Duterte or the prolific, brutally frank tweets of Trump to his 31.1 million Twitter followers, everyone should pause for a moment to review and edit or correct one’s words.
WORDS CAN BE FORGIVEN, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Words, when spoken or tweeted, can no longer be taken back. Even when Trump erased his erroneous “covfefe” tweet almost six hours and 127,000 retweets later, its image had already been spread around. Even after Duterte tried to explain his rape remark as an attempt at “sarcasm,” his insensitive use of the word could be forgiven, but is unlikely to be forgotten.
Message to Duterte and Trump: You are no longer the cowboy-like mayor of a provincial city or the imperious CEO of a privately owned firm. You’re both headline-grabbing leaders whose every word and even physical gesture can be amplified a zillion times, for better or for worse.
Duterte is well-read and is capable of displaying erudition. Hopefully, he avoids certain indefensible words to avoid giving his critics here and in the west more unnecessary fodder to attack him with. Words can hurt, cleanse and heal. Words can sow fear or soften the hardest hearts; they can spark wars and stoke violence.
It would be unfair to our president and to our country if his visionary yet controversial reform advocacies like agrarian reform, massive infrastructure plans, tax reforms, constitutional reforms with federalism and the pragmatic, nationalistic independent foreign policy become muddled or even bogged down by toxic political noises unwittingly sparked by boorish gaffes.
France 24 international TV network on May 30 invited me to join their Debate talk show, along with Dr. Zachary Abuza of the US, Dr. Sherif Elgebeily of Britain and Richard Heydarian of the Philippines. The three criticized Duterte’s policies on martial law and other acts, while I balanced those negative views with positive assessments of his decisive wars against terrorists in Marawi and against illegal drugs, asserting that he’s a strong leader operating within a vibrant democracy.
Afterwards, on Twitter, Elgebeily continued to criticize the president for “advocating” rape, while I pointed out that it was a bad and unfortunate joke that Elgeneily probably had misread in the news, but that Duterte was definitely not even remotely advocating such a heinous crime.
The problem with loose or sloppy use of hot-button and negative words is that critics — and, understandably, the media — will focus relentlessly on those minor yet horrific blunders, thus negating the context as well as the entirety of a person’s serious and more lofty messages.
WORDS HAVE MAGIC, LIMITLESS POWER
Back again to Twitter-in-Chief Trump. What really is the meaning of this mystical non-word “covfefe”? I queried my friend, Los Angeles-based Dr. Afshine Emrani — an Iran-born Jewish cardiologist who is an expert on mystical Jewish and Persian traditions — and he immediately replied: “I think he was calling his pet at night but tweeted by mistake.” What a covfefe!
Levity aside, words really do matter. Words in the form of conversations, affirmations, poetry, song lyrics, speeches, essays, letters, emails, social media posts, prayers and chants — they possess magic.
Words can hurt, cleanse and heal. Words can sow fear or soften the hardest hearts; they can spark wars and stoke violence. Words can beguile with lies and pollute minds with hatred, they can also make us better and kinder human beings.
Words are very important and should be used wisely only after careful thought and reflection. Whether via the printed word, spoken, sang, prayed, chanted, conversed, handwritten the old-fashion way, FB-posted or tweeted, let us galvanize the amazing and life-giving power of words to inspire, enlighten, ennoble and to liberate!