The word ‘audacious’ is defined as “showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.”
But, it can also mean “showing an impudent lack of respect.”
I’m not sure there are many words like that, with two distinctly different definitions.
‘Audacious’ may apply to a number of people in the nation’s spotlight, one of whom departed from Washington DC, last January on Marine One, while several others stayed on in the nation’s Capitol. Like the politicians, below, who we’re hearing about, quite a bit, and quite often.
Are they bold risk-takers? Or, are they just being disrespectful?
“After a man armed with a bow and arrows killed five people in Norway,” Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert “tried to spin the mass killing into an attack on calls for gun law reform in the United States,” according to a Huffington Post article.
Representative Boebert also mocked actor Alec Baldwin, after the, apparently, accidental shooting death of a cinematographer who was filming a scene for a movie.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene “faced backlash… for a tweet mocking assistant health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, the country’s first transgender four-star officer,” the Huffington Post also reported.
The headline for a Kansas City Star Editorial Board opinion piece noted that “Josh Hawley says trying to protect Americans from COVID-19 is ‘woke propaganda,’” and described the Missouri Senator as the state’s “best-known insurrectionist.”
Which of the two distinctly different definitions of ‘audacious’ would apply to the three aforementioned folks… out there, in Washington DC?
Or, would both definitions apply?
Elected officials in the nation’s two, major political parties — Republicans and Democrats — act audaciously, at times, but it seems to be a habit, with some of the politicians. And, that’s concerning, when you consider that such behavior may be contributing, in some ways, to the loss of “faith in democracy,” among Millennials, as reported in a CNN story.
Having experienced freedom and democracy, here in America, for all my life… almost all of it – I did work in England for several years, but that’s a constitutional monarchy – I can say, unequivocally, that freedom and democracy beats the heck out of living someplace that’s ruled by a dictator. I’m just sure of that, from following history and the news.
Being able to speak freely, sure seems better than having to look over your shoulder, all the time. Getting rounded up by storm troopers, or having to be in political indoctrination camps, for hours on end, wouldn’t be much fun.
There are more than enough countries that are being governed by someone who has consolidated power. That’s a deceptively soft way of saying that authoritarian leaders – dictators – are in power, in a whole host of countries.
Of course, governing isn’t always perfect. Far from it! It can get messy, at times. What do they call it, when elected officials are putting legislation together? Don’t they say it’s like running something through a sausage machine?
But, even with all that, freedom and democracy seem so much better than the alternative.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.