quackademicI wish we were all more thoughtful in our use of language.
A man fatally shoots his wife, then himself, in their family home, leaving their kids to find the bodies. The local chief of police tells the media that the man ‘was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding that apparently led to this incident last night’.
Having been ‘served some paperwork’ is not what caused him to do this (‘look what she made me do!’).
It was a man’s belief that his entitlement to control his former wife is of more importance than her life - & of his kids’ lives & wellbeing, & even his own life - that made this murder possible.
Words are the tools we think with. Pay attention to the assumptions our commonplace phrases embody.
