Today, 23rd November, marks the second anniversary of the Ampatuan Massacre. Two years and no one has yet been punished for the crime.
Today, Party List Representatives from Bayan Muna filed a bill proposing the declaration of this date as National Consciousness Day to End Impunity.
Impunity.
I looked up what it means and among other things, here’s how Merriam-Webster defines the word:
Definition of IMPUNITY
: exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss <laws were flouted with impunity>
Origin of IMPUNITY
Middle French or Latin; Middle French impunité, from Latinimpunitat-, impunitas, from impune without punishment, from in- + poena punishment — more at pain
First Known Use: 1532
Related to IMPUNITY
Yes, I used a dictionary. An online one. When was the last time you used one?
I think I want to buy the latest version of Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. The one we have here is decades old. As a blogger, I should never have stopped discovering words, learning their meanings and proper pronunciation. The online dictionaries are pretty handy specially when you want to know how a particular word is pronounced.
Teaching dictionary skills was the topic posted on The Pioneer Woman Homeschooling page yesterday. And it’s really what prompted me to look up the word impunity. Even if I knew what it meant. The post also reminded me of the vocabulary notebook our 2nd year high school English teacher used to have us maintain. We were supposed to record words we encountered and then look them up in the dictionary. I think we were also supposed to use those words in a sentence. It was an annoying homework, but one I learned to appreciate because it helped build my vocabulary.
Maybe I’ll take that up again. Include that in the things I write on my handy dandy notebook.
Now going back to the word of the day. Impunity must end. Crime does not pay.
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