Letter from the Old Lady Grammar Police

Dear Friends,

Do you know what the abbreviations you use really stand for? and how crass, vulgar, common, unwise, limited in vocabulary, a person sounds when they use the words they stand for, or the abbrev.s themselves? "Everyone else does it" and "it's not really what it means anymore" don't actually answer the question, by the way, because I am at least one person who doesn't do it, and it still means not-classy to me (speech communication major extraordinaire), so I'm sure there are a few dozen others who's estimation of you (and the One you stand for, or the business you represent, or the family or country you come from) lessens just a bit when they hear/read these things from you, because it shows (whether it is your intention or not) that your estimation of me and others like me is that you just don't care what we think or how we feel.

Well, listen please: I care about you and I care about how you represent your true, loving, wonderful self, and I really wish you would consider saying what you mean, and meaning what you say, and doing it in a way that glorifies God, or elevates a stranger's view of your job, your school, your family, or your country, and makes people think of what you're really trying to say rather than hearing/reading a phrase that "everybody else" says/writes that really means nothing. Do words mean so little to you? You probably can tell me of a time when words hurt you, helped you, healed you, hurried you or hugged you. And surely you would like to be taken for who you really are - a unique, thoughtful individual with a heart, who doesn't just blindly follow others, but who tries to uplift and encourage other people along the way, and maybe even brighten someone's day. That's why you forward or share those funny or enlightening pictures, right? Please, don't make your readers/listeners have to stoop down in order to to stand back up again by using words and abbreviations that are beneath us all. It's called "dumbing down". Yes, it is. If you don't want me to be talking to you as if you were a child, using words like "don't," "can't" and "potty-mouth", then don't talk to the world at large (through tweets and fb comments) as though the people around you have a tiny, ignorant, non-descriptive and illogical vocabulary either.

Please.

And Thank You.

With love from,

The Advisers to the Grammar Police