national writing day

[Dennis Baron]

it's a fake quote, Joel!
____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage








On Oct 21, 2009, at 9:58 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: national writing day
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dennis,
>
> I'm sending the Web of Language article to two teachers of ESL I know.
>
> 1)  For your quotation from Sen. Alexander:  I didn't find it
> Googling.  And the paragraph is not in the Web article -- were you
> unable to verify it?  8-)
>
> 2)  It might be amusing to add Virginia Gov. William Berkeley's 1670
> remark upon printing (and "free schools").  I found the following via
> Google Books in _Religion in America ..._ by Robert Baird (1844),
> page 147, footnote:
>
> "Sir William Berkeley, in 1670, in replying to the inquiries
> addressed to him by the Lords of Plantations, says:
> 'I thank God, _there are no free schools nor printing,_ and I hope we
> shall not have them these hundred years; for learning has brought
> _disobedience,_ and _heresy,_ and _sects_ into the world, and
> printing has divulged them, and libels against the best
> government.  God keep us from both!' "
>
> 3)  And to add a comment about prohibitions against printing the
> Bible in the vernacular, and against the hoi polloi reading it.
>
> Joel
>
> At 10/21/2009 12:31 AM, Dennis Baron wrote:
>> There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>>
>> It's National Writing Day. I wrote today, did you?
>>
>> Senate Resolution 310 proclaims today, Oct. 20, as the National Day
>> on
>> Writing. Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English,
>> the
>> National Day on Writing seeks to promote personal, professional, and
>> civic writing in all its forms and celebrates writing by establishing
>> a National Writing Gallery to display all the writing created on
>> National Writing Day.
>>
>> The Senate resolution passed only because nowhere in its text are the
>> words "health care" or "communism"; there is no mention of the colors
>> red or pink; and so far as the administration's leftist agenda is
>> concerned, left-handed writers are specifically prohibited from
>> receiving government funds for any writing-related activities.
>>
>> Speaking against the resolution, however, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R.,
>> Tenn.) attacked the National Writing Day for promoting socialism. As
>> Alexander told a gathering at the Hoover Institution, "The
>> Resolution's second whereas clearly states, 'Whereas the social
>> nature
>> of writing invites people of every age, profession, and walk of life
>> to create meaning through composing.' That says it right there, the
>> 'social nature of writing' -- writing is a socialist activity."
>>
>> Read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/weblan
>>
>>
>> ____________________
>> Dennis Baron
>> Professor of English and Linguistics
>> Department of English
>> University of Illinois
>> 608 S. Wright St.
>> Urbana, IL 61801
>>
>> office: 217-244-0568
>> fax: 217-333-4321
>>
>> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>>
>> read the Web of Language:
>> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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