Passing Thoughts on Some “W” Topics

Wages - Payment for time spent working. Given employer reluctance to make wages any higher than absolutely necessary, some employees make up the difference by sloughing off the work. The ideal, embodied in the trade union philosophy, is a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage. The ideal as embodied in Federal Law is a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, a figure which has not been raised by Congress for almost ten years, during which time members of Congress have raised their own pay numerous times. Senator Clinton has proposed legislation to only allow Congressional raises when the Federal minimum wage is raised.

Wal-Mart- Everyday low prices - but not the lowest, not the best quality, not the best employment practices, and not the best corporate citizenship. Probably has the most active and annoying public address system though.

Walking - Healthy, fuel efficient means of personal transportation, disdained by many people in favor of hovering in the parking lot in their idling automobile, waiting for the closest parking space to the door of the store to become available.

War - Violence which escalates until one party surrenders, or until both agree to a truce.

Wealth - What one has, usually implying a quantity greater than the average and often applied as a measure of economic worth. More broadly, wealth means well being, and in some places is applied to the public good as embodied in the State, as for example the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A variation of the term is the word welfare, also meaning the well being of someone. Same root, but a vastly different meaning - wealthy, or on welfare.

Weapons - Tools of violence. In war, better weapons can overcome superior opposing forces, so warfare escalates the production of ever more powerful weapons. Every weapon of increasing devastation developed by man has been used in war, the most powerful to date being the atom bombs the US dropped on Japan. More powerful nuclear weapons have not been used - yet. Will we finally break the chain of devastation and destroy all nuclear weapons so they will not be available for use? It does not seem likely in the foreseeable future, with many nations pushing to acquire nuclear arms, prompted some say by the belligerence of the Bush Administration.

Weather - The activity of that part of the environment not directly connected to the ground. Essentially beyond our control, the power of the weather should be something we celebrate and respect, working with it as best we can, instead of foolishly altering it by our environmental neglect.

Weeds - Undesirable plants, as determined by the farmer or gardener. Before there were farmers and gardeners, were there weeds? They certainly were not part of the intelligent design of the Garden of Eden. But after Eve ate the apple, the Designer started horticultural terror.

Welfare - In the modern US sense of a hand out from government, welfare is dispensed to diverse recipients, from corporate giants to unemployable mothers with dependent children. Those most in legitimate need of welfare also have the least power to influence government, so they are the ones most likely to be targeted by so-called welfare reform.

Whore - Another gift to English from the Icelandic, where it meant a person who commits adultery. The word should properly have continued to be applied equally to men and women, but men having the societal power, it has come to be applied most often to a female prostitute.

Woman - From the Anglo-Saxon for wife of a man, it is now used to mean any adult female human being. Since it takes both a man and a woman to reproduce, one can see that equal rights makes sense. But men created a mythology otherwise and enforce it with their superior capability for violence.

Words - Units of communication, capable of sending everything from simple messages to emotional explosions. The human study of the use and power of words is woefully deficient, probably because those who know how to use words most powerfully for their selfish purposes want it to be that way.

Worry - Emotional energy expended, in almost all cases needlessly, in contemplation of the future.

Worth - A measure of value, unfortunately most often used in the monetary sense. Without endorsing the Mastercard commercials, some things are truly priceless.

Writing - Digitally manifested employment of words, sometimes mundane, sometimes magnificent, but most often somewhere in between. Even today, many adults are not capable of writing, or of reading writing, thereby compounding many of their troubles. World literacy should be a top human concern.