I write books to earn my living.
What gets published reflects on me, and my skills as a writer.
Therefore, proper use of the English language is very important to me for everything I have written, especially any material to be offered for sale.
Poor grammar and misspelled words absolutely drive me crazy no matter where I find the errors, even in the work of another writer.
My primary editor, as well as small army of proof readers, repeatedly goes over any material intended for widespread distribution with a fine-toothed comb.
Even when I have written a shorter opinion piece like this one for my blog, or an article for American Thinker, every last word was carefully scrutinized by me personally before I eventually clicked the “Publish” button or sent it off for review.
That’s why I don’t publish more frequently. Good writing takes time.
I care passionately about the crafting of any message I have decided is worth trying to convey to the reader, no matter how relatively insignificant the point, or how large or small the audience interested in that particular topic may be.
Because I truly care so much about proper use of the English language, it really troubles me about the way universal health care is being marketed in Colorado.
Earlier this morning I stumbled across the healthcare exchange website for the state of Colorado, a poorly named abomination called “doyougotinsurance.com.”
At first I thought the whole thing was intended to be a joke, sort of like the Onion.
But it’s real.
Do you got insurance? Seriously?
Every English teacher in the Rocky Mountain state must be mortified. Of course, the proper question to ask would be: do you have insurance?
Making matters even worse, one of the pages on the website described a plan it called “Brosurance.” The page pictured two “friends” holding the legs of a third man over his head, while he performed something called a “keg stand”, complete with beer tap hanging from his mouth.
The caption read:
Keg Stands are crazy. Not having health insurance is crazier. Don’t tap into your beer money to cover those medical bills. We got it covered.
The ad copy should have promised that we’ve got it covered, not “we got it covered.”
At least we can probably all agree on this one thought: keg stands are crazy.
But so is forcing responsible taxpayers to subsidize the healthcare of drunken bums.
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