I like talking, listening and reading. Even though I studied Latin, French and a little German, I realize that I only know English. Whenever I go to Google Translate (you know you can find most Google services with the name.google.com), I see around 60 languages listed.
7,139 languages are spoken today.
This is a fragile time: Roughly 40% of languages are now endangered, often with less than 1,000 speakers remaining. Meanwhile, just 23 languages account for more than half the world's population.
How many languages are there in the world? | Ethnologue
Because of the internet, international travel, social media and the energy and squirreliness of modern people, especially young people, new terms and new uses for old terms are always being introduced. So, I am constantly considering what I and other people mean by their words.
If you are trying to get a large group of people excited, motivated and united, it can help to shout some terms that they all hold dear. Since the US is somewhat "diverse" and is concentrating on increasing the variety of origins, ethnicities, languages, and backgrounds of its populace, it can be fun and profitable to note what terms seem to command attention and allegiance.
I have noticed that many political movements seek "change". Sometimes the sort of change sought is not expressed. When I hear calls for change, I ask myself if I too seek change. Sometimes, sometimes not. I could seek youth, fame, beauty, fortune but I suspect any of them
Won't 'come' just because I seek them
If any of them does land on me, it will come at a price and with conditions and burdens and costs I won't welcome
In calls for change, I often find demands for "action". I don't fit the description of a contemplative but I am both suspicious and sceptical. What action, exactly?
I gather "climate change" is a good term for disturbing people and alerting them to the need to change their ways. Just about everything I have heard or read gives me the idea that the earth may become far less habitable than it has been and may develop conditions that don't support humans. I see that the latest issue of Time magazine has a large article about the problem and that Bill Gates, blamed in some places for Covid 19, has a book about handling the difficulty. I haven't read it but I have it in the back of my mind.
I was impressed when the fictitious version of the US President in "Supreme Courtship" ran for re-election with the campaign slogan "More of the same." I suppose that meant that politically knowledgeable people would never use such a slogan.
