What's Not To "Like"? - Perverting The Mother Tongue
Most educated, English-speaking people cringe at the increasing misuse of the word "like" and "I feel like" which seem to have inhabited our daily discourse. This is less a problem for non-native English speakers when they speak English and rather seems to have spread in pandemic form through our 24/7 pop culture media immersion and then is carried into our homes, schools, shopping malls, concert venues, at the beach and in other places where people gather en masse.
Operation USA (www.opusa.org), a 37 year old international disaster relief agency and co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize (as part of the Int'l Campaign Against Landmines), has increasingly become involved in rebuilding schools and libraries in post disaster or endemic poverty environments. Our motto is "give and it gets there".
In the spirit of raising funds for these programs, Operation USA offers the following challenge to our cultural, thought and political leaders: watch the attached video https://youtu.be/IAxHruR9DUw portraying ways in which "like" is misused, choose a classic passage from a well-known speech, poem or lines of prose; make your own 30 second "like" video and post it on your favored social media site with a copy sent to Operation USA's You Tube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts which are all in our full name, Operation USA. Challenge both your friends and well-known celebrities to make their own send-up video misusing the word "like" OR, failing that, to send a donation in support of Operation USA's educational programs both in the USA and throughout the world. [kudos to master acting coach Howard Fine in Hollywood for inspiring this challenge]
I challenge OpUSA co-founder Julie Andrews; the actress Rosario Dawson; and, Bill Maher, along with all of my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube friends. My challenge video is attached.
Let the Games Like Begin!!!
Richard Walden
President & CEO
Operation USA
www.opusa.org