How about we call the Environmental Protection Agency the Environmental Protection Army? Keeping pollution out of our air, water, food, and bodies should be taken as seriously as military defense.
Right?
Yeah…I’m not holding my breath! But it’s high time to remind ourselves—and everybody we know—why majorities of Americans of all political stripes believe in a strong EPA. Just 19 percent of US voters said in a recent poll that they’d like to see the agency “weakened or eliminated,” while 60 percent favored keeping it as is or strengthening it under President Trump.
That’s why cognitive linguist George Lakoff urges us to always say protections not regulations . The word “regulations” frames the conversation from the corporate point of view—as limitations on their “freedom” to do whatever they want no matter who it harms, while “protections” frames things from the public’s viewpoint—as safeguards against harm done to people.
The EPA protects people. And words matter to people just as policies do. Read more at Sightline.org. And please share these tips with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!
