Word Police: The Big Apple Contagion Heads South

It's no longer just New York City residents finding themselves under the soothingly oppressive thumb of a legislature dictating what words we may and may not use.  Like a New Yorker fleeing the death tax, this fine idea has shuffled on down to Florida.

A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents.

"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."

Senator Wilson, when I think of "wilson" I think of an imaginary island friend, made from a volleyball, some twigs, and Tom Hanks' blood.  But... I suppose there are multiple uses for the word "wilson".  Kind of like the word "alien".

To help Senator Wilson and the rest of us parse these nuances and all the complexities of homophones, homonyms, and words with multiple definitions, Florida's new Governor, Charlie Crist, has stressed the importance of "plain speaking" by state agencies, an initiative with which Wilson contends her word control policy is in keeping.

As for striking the word "alien", her contention merits at best a half-hearted hmeh.  I generally use the term "illegal immigrant" myself, but a hmeh (and even the hmeh is generous) is hardly resounding enough to go banning a non-profane, non-slur word from official documents.  But Wilson doesn't stop there.  Florida's would-be word czar isn't even convinced the word "illegal" is plain-talky enough.

"'Illegal,' I can live with, but I like 'undocumented' better," she said.

On this one, Wilson scores no better than a dismissive pffft. "Illegal" is the perfect descriptor in this case.  Official documents identifying the group of people in question are not seeking to classify those without documentation.  Indeed, we know that many illegal immigrants do have some forms of documentation.  If such people are hereafter legally cited by the state of Florida as "undocumented immigrants" then mightn't any subsequent law (however misguided it may be) that offers privileges normally reserved for legal residents to illegal residents (drivers' licenses, social security cards, passports, Congressional ID badges, etc.) might arguably exempt the newly duly "documented" illegal immigrants from any laws that make specific reference to "undocumented immigrants" as per Wilson's plan.

Lack of clarity and unintended consequences will always be the case when we prize political correctness over actual correctness.  I suspect that's exactly what Governor Crist was trying to guard against.

(HT: Hot Air)