My Oral Assessment

“HUH?”

We’ve changed the motto of the United States. “Huh?” you say. And you’re right. “Huh?” is the nation’s new rallying cry. Ladies say “huh?” Gentlemen say “huh?” Children say “huh?” to everything. You could tell my brothers that their Crocs are on fire and they’d say “huh?”

                 Once it would have been “pardon me” or “come again” or “sorry, Daddy, I didn’t hear what you said.” Now it’s the dull, uncouth, distracted “huh?” This is the result of the dull, uncouth distraction of modern life. People are constantly staring at something other than person speaking to them – a laptop, BlackBerry, video game, Kindle, text message – and wearing iPod earbuds and talking on a cell phone too. The cell phone conversation goes like this: Person with cell phone pauses slack-jawed, says, “huh?” and then pauses while something is said again. He now says something waits for the corresponding “huh?” and repeated himself. 

                 In 1956, Congress changed the motto of the United State to “In God We Trust” because nobody knew what the old motto meant anymore. America’s original motto, appearing on the Greatest Seal of the United State since 1782, was “e pluribus unum” (“one out of many”) or, as we might say today, “e pluribus huh?” 

I know its kinda weird. ahhaha