That’s reductive. Words carry a great deal of power. We’re writers. Who can be more conscious of this than we are? The power of words is apparent in doctrine, racial slurs, and verbal abuse, to name a few examples. Words are the invisible building blocks of society. We can’t just chalk it all up to our interpretation and pick the one that’s the least offensive just to make ourselves feel better.

I’m getting a tiny bit tired of responses that fall under the category of “Don’t take it so hard. Just look at it as an innocuous thing.” I wrote about it. Clearly, my position is that this is something that needs to be addressed in our society.