Dakota Beacon

Words matter. When you are a mischievous ten-year-old you discover that when your father says “no” he means it.  Why? Because he said so. How did I know he meant it? The black leather strap. When he spoke about other things and gave people his word on something and they shook hands on it, I would have been more than willing to let the other party in on what those hands of my dad’s (that looked to me like Paul Bunyan’s hands) could do!

I thought everyone should have respect or what my dad promised in the deal. And for what I saw, he kept his side of the agreements.  Nowadays we have to lawyer up and threaten to sue If someone doesn’t hold up their end—heck, you have to have someone take notes (I think I have some relatives that did that for a living in the court room.  Maybe I could hire them since they are retired).

It used to be we only made fun of people when they changed their story over an agreement or transaction.  They showed us the thinking behind what Groucho Marx was purported to have said.  “Those are my principles, and If you don’t like them…well, I have others.”  I grew up thinking principles were a standard you lived by.  Seems nowadays it’s not that simple.  

It seems now that if we get by with it and nobody notices, it’s ok.  However, it isn’t what the Bible says, and I don’t think God changes the Ten Commandments because someone doesn’t agree with them. It’s hard to tell these days—not many reminders hanging around in school hallways, court rooms or other public places.

I know that words are important and especially so when you are studying poetry. I have come to really like Shakespeare and one day after a particularly difficult session on one of his famous sonnets that I wasn’t getting, my wife threw up her hands and ran into the bedroom, I thought she gave up on me. I walked over to where she’d been sitting and found the book of the Shakespeare’s sonnets and I discovered that this version gave the key to interpreting these poems I didn’t understand.  

It’s all in knowing what the words really meant and not what popped into my head as I read or listened.  One line said this: “Keep what thy memory cannot contain, commit to these waste blanks and thou shalt find…”  Waste blanks didn’t mean used 38 caliber shells, but blank sheets of paper like in one of those fancy journals my wife has at least 1000 of! If you won’t remember, it can help to write it down.  

Which leads me to my point that words do matter and if you are in media (as I am) or in politics (as I am) you must be very careful because they have the power to change the world.  

Lord Byron said it this way, “But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think”.

Emineth is a North Dakota native businessman and political activist. He is a former executive director and chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party. Emineth has served on the Republican National Committee and chaired numerous presidential campaigns in North Dakota. He is the host of “The Legislature Today” and “Open Range” daily TV shows on BEK. He is a serial entrepreneur and has 40-plus years of business experience with multi-national companies. He has traveled the world extensively and has served as CEO and president of mid-tier companies.