- 'Stand up and say your name!'

Why is it that we as persons are inclined to give out names as if on a whim? It can be said that one does not really know another until that others name is known. And, in the knowing of a name is power. But why, why do we have names at all, are we not content to be simply called man, as a lion is simply called a lion. But even onto lions, even onto animals we bestow names. If one has a pet usually a name is given, most of us do not simply say 'dog'. Are we so possessed that we name even inanimate objects? We are. We give names, we have names because we are different. One does not simply say man because that man is not the same as the previous one. They look different and the only way to differentiate between the two is with words.

One of our greatest freedoms is the power of speech. The power to articulate, the power to voice our thoughts and dreams, and the power to inspire others to dream. So great is the power of words that I am unable to adequately express them, so I will take a passage from one who is, G.K. Chesterton.

"Well, we won't quarrel about a word," said the other pleasantly.
"Why on earth not?" said MacIan, with a sudden asperity. "Why shouldn't we
quarrel about a word? What is the good of words if they aren't important enough
to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word over another if there isn't any
difference between them? If you call a women a chimpanzee instead of an angel,
wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about
words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to
me by moving your ears ? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about
words, because they are the only things worth fighting about. I say that murder
is a sin, and bloodshed is not, and that there is as much difference between
those two words as there is between the word 'yes' and the word 'no'; or rather
more difference, for 'yes' and 'no', at least, belong to the same category.
Murder is a spiritual incident. Bloodshed is a physical incident. A surgeon
commits bloodshed."

Such is the power of words. And so great is their power that we use them even when there is no one but us to hear. We talk to ourselves. "It may indeed been said that the word is never a more splendid mystery than when it travels in a man's mind from thought to conscience and then back again to thought."