Watch your grammar

Education is getting a fresh rake-over from elected persons in the nation’s capital and in Augusta. Has anyone noticed while those in the Legislature are expounding on standards, on testing and retesting, the grammar used by news people, talk show hosts and “important” folks being interviewed has deteriorated? Has there been a secret ballot to change the conjugation of the verb “to be” that didn’t get into newspapers?

I hear, “There’s four cars in the ditch.” Not too many years ago this would have been reported as “There are four cars in the ditch.” How many errors can you hear in one night’s news? Who sets the standards the legislators are talking about? Who sets the examples that uphold these standards? A. Carman Clark Union