{"id":4753,"date":"2015-05-19T06:28:59","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T10:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4753"},"modified":"2015-05-19T06:39:44","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T10:39:44","slug":"questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4753","title":{"rendered":"questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"600px-Blue_question_mark_(italic).svg\"<\/a>Ok, ok… it\u2019s true. I have a favorite punctuation mark. In my small world of creative idiosyncrasies — in a world where some may have a fondness for the colon or comma — I believe I have admitted before that I love the question mark. Yep… you heard me. I love the question mark. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

(Save when \u201cidiot\u201d is the last word of the sentence)<\/em> The question mark is the only punctuation piece that keeps a conversation going. It\u2019s the only mark that invites a response. And it\u2019s the only form of punctuation that shows an obvious interest in hearing and considering the opinions of others — as opposed to engaging in continued self proclamation.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I polled the pages of my favorite news sites, observing what headlines also utilized my favorite mark. I found the following, \u201cquestionable\u201d headlines:<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath Penalty: ‘Civilized’ Vengeance or Biblical Contradiction?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWill Nonreligious Reshape U.S. Politics?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cISIS Slaughter in the Making?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Do America\u2019s Riots So Precisely Mirror Each Other, Generation After Generation After Generation?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWere Asian-American Businesses Targeted in the Baltimore Riots?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDid Louis C.K. Go Too Far?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDo Churches Fail the Poor?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Not Martin O\u2019Malley?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShouldn’t We Expect that Our Intelligence Professionals Tell the Truth and Be Straight with the American People?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Did Clinton \u2018Enforcer\u2019 George Stephanopoulos Get the Job In The First Place?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWho Killed Who?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShould U.S. Topple Secular Dictators?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDo Clippers Need Big Changes?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cChicago Cubs’ Win Streak Snapped?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

In each of the above editorials, an opinion is exerted but begins with a question. The opinion is thus prefaced by a means that invites other people into the conversation. Notice some of the tougher subjects addressed above — including but not limited to terrorism, child abuse, the death penalty, politics, race, religion, and the fate of the Chicago Cubs (sorry, Dad).<\/em> The question allows for the foray into sensitive subject areas — subjects often challenging for people to respectfully discuss.<\/p>\n

Notice, too, how the practice is seemingly contrary to the social sites of Facebook and Twitter. On those two sites especially, persons often express opinion via rants, raves, tweets, and fervid imperatives; the rant may be contained in a single sentence or two. Yes, we are passionate people; we have many opinions and often desire to express them. But observe how often Facebook and Twitter omit my favorite form of punctuation. Observe, also, how productive, constructive, solution-oriented dialogue seems so rare in social media.<\/p>\n

Just a bit of an idiosyncrasy… I love the question mark… for many reasons. Isn\u2019t it grand?<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, ok… it\u2019s true. I have a favorite punctuation mark. In my small world of creative idiosyncrasies — in a world where some may have a fondness for the colon or comma — I believe I have admitted before that I love the question mark. Yep… you heard me. I love the question mark. \ud83d\ude42 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “questions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4753"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4761,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions\/4761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}