Hijacking the Language of Terrorism
By Doug Patton
October 22, 2001

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." -- From the novel, 1984, by George Orwell

Some believe that the terror of Orwell's masterful 1949 vision - with its two-way "telescreens" installed in every home, constantly reminding citizens that "Big Brother is watching" - lay in its portrayal of the absolute totalitarian control of every citizen's movements.

As one who deals in the nuance of language, I have always found the prospect of "Newspeak" much more troubling. Newspeak was an entire language Orwell created for the construction of the world of 1984. Instead of evolving, as most language does, Newspeak devolved with each passing year, until words once taken for granted no longer existed, had been replaced by something entirely different (or completely opposite) in meaning or had no meaning at all. Hence, the slogan, "War is peace...freedom is slavery...ignorance is strength."

Over the last twenty years, political correctness has brought Newspeak to our modern world. Many of us viewed it as mere silliness or a passing fad. No more. Newspeak has come with a vengeance to America and to its war on terror.

I offer up as Exhibit "A" a letter to President Bush written by none other than the infamous Nebraska abortionist, LeRoy Carhart. Carhart, who practices his diabolical craft just blocks from my home and my church in Bellevue, grabbed headlines last year and became the poster boy for the pro-abortion movement by successfully convincing a majority of the members of the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Nebraska's ban on the heinous procedure known as partial-birth abortion.

In a statement 1984's Winston Smith would have found worthy of the latest edition of the Newspeak dictionary, Carhart has labeled those in the pro-life movement "terrorists."

"They have burnt and bombed our homes and businesses," Carhart whined in his letter to the president, which he conveniently leaked to a sympathetic news media. "They have kidnapped and held hostage our members and, without regard to age or sex, they have murdered our unarmed men and women. Terrorism is terrorism. Terrorists are terrorists."

This is a man whose main mission in life is to kill as many unborn babies as he can. The vast majority of these children are perfectly formed and merely inconvenient. Oh, sure, he also performs other OBGYN services for the sake of appearances, but the bottom line is that every day he goes to his office and is handsomely paid for pulling babies from their mothers' wombs in the late stages of their growth. He then sucks their fully formed brains from their little skulls until their tiny bodies stop squirming and writhing from the agonizing pain. This is how this man makes his living.

I submit to you that LeRoy Carhart is the "terrorist."

While I deplore the violence misguided protesters may perpetrate against medical personnel or their property, the truth is that in the nearly twenty-nine years of legal abortion in the United States - a period that has seen the slaughter of one third of a generation - there has been a grand total of seven abortionists killed.

LeRoy Carhart killed more people than that yesterday. In fact, it is estimated that in his career to date, he has aborted between 35,000 and 40,000 babies, a reality he should not be allowed to hide behind his contention that he and his fellow abortionists are victims. They are not victims. No matter how they try to dress up what they do in respectable "Newspeak," the truth is that they have made a conscious choice to provide a service that causes death. For Carhart to compare his life and career to that of a secretary or a flight attendant vaporized in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, while equating pro-lifers to Osama bin Laden, is outrageous!

Americans are currently caught up in a wave of emotions that run the gamut, from inspired feelings of patriotism to resolute determination to fear of additional homeland terror. The anthrax scare alone has gripped the nation and changed our view of everything, from the mail we receive to the air we breathe. Now we are frightened of the possibility of smallpox warfare.

We have watched in horror as terrorists hijacked our airplanes, murdered our citizens and then blamed us for the attack. We are daily subjected to the worst sort of demonic demagoguery coming out of the Middle East. Let us denounce with one great voice this nonsense coming from those who would hijack our language and attempt to alter the meaning of the word "terrorist."