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In the news: "Stay the course", a favorite tagline of US President
George Bush, was named top catch phrase of 2006 last week by language use
group Global Language Monitor.
A catch phrase is a fine-sounding one that is easy to remember. It's
catching, like a common cold.
"Stay the course" is a fine phrase. It tells one
to persist and persevere in face of criticism, obstacles and setback.
Originally, this phrase might have come from ocean navigation. Any
seafaring shipman knows that to reach the destiny, he has to keep to the
right course come what may, naughty winds or roaring waves.
"Stay the course" is generally good advice to give. I gave it the other
day to a reader who said: "I always aim to find a word that doesn't sound
Chinglish but I always fail. I keep reading and writing and trying but I
am not making progress and it's frustrating." I effectively told him,
among other things, to stay the course.
"You are making progress," I said. "You just don't feel the progress.
That's all." And I added encouragingly: "Keep reading, keep writing, keep
trying and keep feeling the frustration. Keep suffering and you'll be
alright."
That is to say when you know you have a good cause to pursue, which the
man in the White House did not have with his war against Iraq. That war
was launched on some flimsy excuses (freedom for Iraqis), pretexts that
don't hold water (weapons of mass destruction) and what amounted to
outright lies (Saddam Hussein is linked to Al-Qaida and Iraq poses a
threat to the United States).
That's why in explaining why Bush's "Stay the course" was named top
catch phrase of the year, Global Language monitor President Paul JJ Payack
said: "It makes number one because it was declared inoperative." To be
fair, the White House has for some time dropped the phrase as it searches
for a new direction in Iraq.
The lesson? If you have a personal Iraq (we all have our own Iraqi
issues, I'm sure), you'd better withdraw, give it up and do something
else. Don't stay the course just because a lot has been put into it -
sacrifices of life, time, resourses.
In other words, don't stay the course. Stay the cause.
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