In March I wrote about my quite irrational dislike of the exclamation mark. And those who abuse it. Even I admitted then, and I quote myself here, “Surely there are greater things to expend hatred on – like the idea of Donald Trump as POTUS.” Well, here we all are, staring at Donald Trump as the actual POTUS and I find my distaste for this punctuation mark at an all time high. You see when it comes to the exclamation mark Donald Trump is surely the greatest abuser I have ever seen. And so I’m back begging us all not to use it. Unless of course you’re passing this along saying, “This is a great read! Must repost! What an awesome blog!”
I know what you’re thinking. Really, Sue? In the face of potential basic constitutional violations are you going to call Donald Trump out for punctuation abuse? You’re actually an awful punctuator. And can’t you see we’re all reading post election press on each other’s Facebook pages, no one needs you to add to the pile with such pithiness. As it is there are so many real celebrities like Aaron Sorkin writing beautiful things about how horrid this election was we’ll be two years into a Donald Trump presidency before we’ve read and reposted it all.
Well, yes I am still going to do this, and you just have to scan Donald Trump’s Twitter to see why my dislike is back with such great vengeance.
That dirty little punctuation mark breathes disingenuousness into everything.
‘Jeb Bush, George W and George H.W. all called to express their best wishes on the win. Very nice!’
It infuses bravado and machismo where they don’t belong.
It makes what could so easily be a request, into a condescending barked order.
It turns what could be a well-meaning statement in the hands of those less abusive into vacuously yelled nonsense.
It allows mean spiritedness to be sugarcoated.
It quickly and lightly dismisses serious issues like stealing large amounts of money from senior citizens.
And it makes it seem like you see everything as a beauty pageant or a TV show.
It also allows you to appear to sound humble when you are actually on a TV show, as the what? Oh the President. Blush, blush.
I will be interviewed on @60Minutes tonight after the NFL game – 7:00 P.M. Enjoy!
See? The evidence is higher than a Trump hotel built with steel from China.
Now, Obama’s campaign – and Hillary’s – did not come with exclamations marks. Obama simply offered ‘HOPE’, not ‘HOPE!’ Hillary spoke of ‘experience’ not ‘experience!’ They both exercised restraint.
Even when really good things happened like seeing a team that had not won in 108 years win, Obama was restrained. His Twitter read as folows:
I’ll say it: Holy Cow, @Cubs fans. Even this White Sox fan was happy to see Wrigley rocking last night.
Even his ‘Holy Cow’ came exclamation mark free. Because being a leader takes restraint. Being a leader is serious business. As Donald Trump reluctantly packs his overnight bag for the White House (because the Trump Tower is well, nicer, so don’t have them pack up everything honey!) he shows no signs of restraint. His brand of “You’re Fired!” drama, power-mongering and alarmism appears to be so much easier for him.
To his credit his campaign did stop at embroidering the exclamation mark on the emergency red ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ baseball caps his white guys wore, but I’m going with the assumption it was a mistake. Probably some immigrants who should not be working here in the first place who screwed up. Or a woman…
So, once again I’m proposing we hold back on the exclamation marks. Because I still think nothing is that ‘CUTE!’ or that ‘Urgent!!!’ but mainly because if we lose calm and yell back we are no different. If we lose hope we will only have despair. If every Holy Cow is exclaimed we will not see when the real Holy Cows – like respect for one another no matter what our race, sex or economic standing, or our feeling of safety not just in theaters watching Hamilton – are being slaughtered. Continue to read everything you can. Repost it on all your social media. And of course protest as you see fit. It’s important. But when you do, think before you exclaim. Or risk sounding like Donald Trump. Yikes!