Watch Your Language

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."

- George Orwell

My wife came across this seemingly innocent yet revealing abuse of language in a recent St. Louis Park City newsletter blurb on new fire stations:

Our departmental needs and equipment have outgrown the stations. When built more than 40 years ago, the city responded to fewer than 500 calls annually. In 2007, we responded to 4,300 calls. Our department now also includes gender diversity for which our stations are not equipped.

As my wife asked, "How much gender diversity is there anyway? There's only two, right? Why couldn't they just say they now have female firefighters too?"

Given a choice between clear, concise language and meaningless PC puffery, the modern bureaucrat is always going to go with the latter.