Newspeak or Dumbspeak

Apparently, a legislator in Florida would like to ban a term from being used in documents or even spoken by state employees - no word on whether thinking the term is still allowed. What is the term? Illegal Alien. What party does the legislator belong to? Need you ask?

Oh, and what is her problem with the term? Allegedly, not the word illegal:

"I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."

Well, I personally find people who claim to represent the public who don't know the basics of the English language to be offensive. The first definition of alien is "An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country. Also called noncitizen." More specifically, the word alien has a legal definition: "Foreign-born persons who have not been naturalized to become U.S. citizens under federal law and the Constitution." And while E.T. does fall under this definition, so do the millions of invaders (sorry, "undocumented immigrants") who pass in and out of the country at will.

So either the honorable senator is being disingenuous as to the reason for this bill, or she is admitting amazing ignorance as to her chosen field of work. It's fifty-fifty in my mind which is correct, but regardless of her rationale, one thing is clear - we definitely need to stamp out this kind of niggardly thinking.