Responsibility. When does our responsibility end and another person’s begin?
Incorrect word choice is funny in a cartoon, funny in a story, funny when it affects no one; not so funny, when it causes harm. I would garner a guess this cartoon would be taken by most as funny and in certain moods even I, Ms. Sees the World Differently, would, too.
But I am composed of many guiding forces. Ms. Responsibility Fanatic, even as she sees the humor in the cartoon - and the lesson in wording our sales ads correctly - finds the humor quickly passed over and leaps into the forefront of my mind, where she plants her rather-large-for-a-woman feet, anchors her hands on her slim hips, and speaks repeatedly, as if absolutely determined I hear her. To make it worse, she combines forces with Ms. Safety fanatic to speak as one, Ms. Conscious Personified.
“See what happened? One simple misuse of a few words and the whole neighborhood block could explode into flames that would rival those created by the best laid plans of a practiced arsonist! What if a teenager, lost in his phone conversation about the chick he just passed in the Ferarri, accidentally tossed his cigarette aside, and because his nose had already burned out by all the smoke around him, he had not smelled the gas fumes? It would be YOUR lack of proper wording that caused it!”
“What? Me, I am not the person that littered or used gas to wash my car. Any adult would know not to use gas. Don’t blame it on me. Besides you just insinuated the young man was driving the Ferarri didn’t you? Or was it the chick?”
“See! Exactly what I am talking about. You must express yourself clearly, concisely, with no room left for doubt. That is why you have books and Ms. Grammar to assist you. Now, since you brought it up, let’s talk about making assumptions in your ads. It is not only adults that read them and not all adults have the education that you were afforded, not that you are making use of it.”
I suppose I shouldn’t have assumed I was going to write on responsibility just because I made that my opening sentence either… after all, I won the title of Ms. Most Side Tracked. So you can read between the lines and figure it out for yourself. I know my readers are capable of thought!
“I heard that! Assumption! Last sentence!”
But, my readers, it is a positive assumption!
(Note: Click here to enter the contest or to just peruse his site.) The contest ends tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. CST, but his blog will still be around to peruse. I found info there on sales I read - and the cartoon used as a prompt for the contest is his!
NOTE: I edited this tonight after realizing I had words in here that most would not consider G-rated, I was rushing around to finish before I had to unplug my computer before another wave of lightning came through and forgot to edit it earlier. I apologize.
