Dear Michael,
You were diverted yesterday by the need to preside over a “Diversity Training” seminar. I am diverted today (Oklahoma City) to speak and receive a “Distinguished Citizen” award. This will permit me to warn of the ambiguities of language, citing the priest who wrote to the bishop pleading his appearance at the reopening of the church after the roof was repaired. The bishop grumpily agrees, but only if the pastor fails to enlist the services of “someone less distinguished.” At deadline time, the pastor telephones and apologizes for summoning the bishop, pleading that he tried and tried but could find no other person less distinguished than the bishop.
You bump into yourself in your farewell sally on first names. It is logical to refer to such as Mrs. Graham (is there such as Mrs. Graham?) using her surname, even though one calls her Kay to her face. What that means is that you are subconsciously affirming a difference in station (yes, that’s the right word), which you don’t want to, or feel the need to, be disciplined by in common discourse. Endicott Peabody was called, presumably only by mother, wife, and nanny, Cotty. And no, there is nothing at all wrong in calling the cleaning lady Joan, even if she calls you Mr. Kinsley. What’s wrong is the ideological insistence on symmetry when usage cries out against it.
Now the affirmative action basis has me leaning on the side of Professor Epstein. His position is an extension of Murphy’s Law, which survived the anti-discrimination wave of legislation in New York 20 years ago. It held out for two-apartment dwellings, permitting the rental of the second apartment without reference to discrimination suits. Do you remember the Girard case? It was at the turn of the century, the philanthropist Girard leaving his money to found an orphanage in Philadelphia, which would be open only to white Protestant boys. That sat for generations but then clogged up the courts, which set aside the covenant on the grounds that the state could not be an agent of an evil act. I thought that wrong and think it wrong to get in the way of voluntary acts by citizens expressing their own preferences and priorities unless what hangs in the balance is necessary to life. That obviously requires feeding and shelter facilities to look after the traveler; which is, I guess, why under common law, the caravanserai had to accommodate all comers provided they could pay for the service.
Forgive the abrupt ending; I need to dash off to Oklahoma to be honored. I couldn’t find any place closer.
X,
B
