I can't believe I just wrote that sentence about a fast food joint.
You won't see me at Chick-Fil-A today, however. No sir, no ma'am. I am vehemently opposed to their stance on what I think is one of the major issues affecting Americans today. I feel like Chick-Fil-A's support for, or rather lack of support for, one of the big issues that is facing our ability to communicate freely and express who we are cannot be overlooked.
The issue I'm talking about, of course, is spelling.
People decry the poor spelling of young people today and attribute it to "text-speak." But I honestly think the corruption of our spelling ethic goes back farther than just the introduction of SMS texting. I think it can be traced back to the early 1960s, when Truett Cathy flaunted basic spelling rules and spelled his restaurant "Chick-Fil-A" instead of the orthographically correct "Chick Fillet"
Oh, the English teachers who must have wept upon seeing that sign.
But, it got worse. The Powers That Be behind this chicken franchise weren't satisfied with ruining the spelling of fillet. Their marketing campaign raised the desecration of the English to new heights.
It makes my former-copy-editor heart bleed just looking at the atrocious spelling.
And now, the chickens (so to speak) have come home roost, with an entire generation of children who can't spell correctly. Surrounded by billboards that exhort them to "Eat Mor Chikin," of course they will start to think it's okay to write sentences like "R U OK? L8R! LOL!" What a world, what a world!
So I hope you will stand with me today and say, "No! We will not support the ongoing corruption of the written English language! No, we will not continue down this road to destruction of the written word."
I won't rest until Chick-Fil-A issues an apology and corrects its spelling.
Eh, who am I kidding? I'll probably still rest before.
But I still won't eat more chicken.
No comments:
Post a Comment