Red and Blue America

The meaning of a word changes

Over time the meaning of a word can change. I have always believed that translation of old documents can and do sometimes end up misinterpreted. The end result is that one little grain of mustard seed can sprout a lot of controversy. Don’t believe me, than take for example and old 1934 movie titled: ‘The gay divorcee’, the censors then objected to the word ‘Divorce’ and added and extra letter e at the end. Back then (only 71 years ago, imagine what several centuries can do to a word) gay meant happy or cheerful. Today a movie with that title would mean a completing different subject to most movie goers.

Now we arrive at Red and Blue America. During the election coverage the color red was used to indicate the state went Republican and blue was used for the Democrats. Let us go back about 25 years in time and place ourselves in a meeting being held by Red China’s chairman, the purpose to watch carefully the U.S. election results. The results are in and after seeing a sea of red states on the map of the U.S., one of the party members exclaims: Look at that, the whole country’s gone communist. At that time if you said to someone ‘he is a red’, it didn’t mean Republican.

As for me there are three colors on the U.S. flag, so next time I’ll vote White!