Hamlet: Words, words, words.

Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet: Slanders, sir.

-- From William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act II Scene 2)

A lot of people are saying that we should just ignore what Manny Pacquiao allegedly “said” in American media (or an utterance attributed to him). But I find it hard to detach, sorry. You see, I am a writer and words are my currency for transacting my feelings to the world. So thus, misuse of such words devalues certain thoughts and emotions. Add to that the fact that I am a queer feminist advocate and thus, certain words, when misconstrued to malign people of my community, hurt not only me but a collective, a population, a group of humans – humans who feel, who think, and who live, humans who are also connected to other humans as they/we collectively fight for rights denied us.