22 November 2013

Lancer, Lace, Lyric, Lark


When that thin veil of grief descended on November 22, 1963, irrevocably dividing hope from the future, I could not have anticipated that the grief would come again so fresh fifty years later. I have lost, this country has lost, the art of language in political discourse, the love of rhetoric in the service of justice. Our basic cultural myth is, essentially, creation by the word, and I have seen in these fifty years the degradation of political process and commonality by the insistence on a increasingly simplistic vocabulary.  Language creates ideas, creates our reality.

Take this one example of language: where once the President and First Lady were known to the Secret Service as Lancer and Lace, they have now for several administrations been known at POTUS and FLOTUS -- sounds that can only evoke public lavatories.

These were the Secret Service codes fifty years ago:

The First Family:
Lancer
Lace
Lyric
Lark

Vice Presidential Group:
Volunteer
Victoria
Velvet
Venus
Vigilant

Places:
Castle
Crown
Angel
Charcoal
SS 100 X
Halfback
Varsity
Cabin
Hamlet
Chateau
Crossroads
Acrobat
Calico
Carpet Cork
Central Volcano

Official Family:
Wand
Willow
Wayside
Market
Watchman
Warrior
Wing
Witness
Tiger
Freedom

Secret Service Agents:
Domino
Suplex
Deacon
Dazzle
Dandy
Digest
Daylight
Debut
Dusty
Dagger
Dancer
Dresser
Drummer

White House Communications:
Star
Satchel
Sturdy

Shadow







2 comments:

  1. Great blog ... guessing these secret 'codes' cannot be used again ... but what awful replacements

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, this is one of my absolute favourite blogs. Such an interesting link to the anniversary of JFK's death.

    ReplyDelete

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