When words lose their meaning, I listen for the sounds they make.
Some are like dirty water swirling in a can. Some are like deflating a truck tire.
Some are like when a child dumps her blocks on a tile floor.
When words become their opposites I look for their history, their DNA. Many have traveled a long road to be mishandled by patriots. Their dignity is not diminished.
When César Lehmann, the lead singer of the Spanish rap-rock band Def Con Dos, was arrested by military police and accused, under Spain’s new gag law, of inciting terrorism, his words sounded like a hammer annealing hot iron.
The words of the government official sounded like cheap pants ripping when someone has grown fat stealing from widows and old veterans.
