User:Johntex/Temp2

Thoughts on John Kerry's first injury
''This is a place to collect some of my thoughts. I welcome comments at the bottom. If any comments posted here cause me to alter my thoughts as I am forming them, As part of my user page, I reserve the right to make changes to these thoughts as my consideration continues, and also to remove comments from the comments section at my discretion. I may or may not eventually post my thoughts to the relevant talk page depending on whether I think these thoughts are likely to be helpful than they are divisive.''

In the debate over whether the injury that led to John Kerry's first Purple heart should be called a minor wound, certain editors have suggested that it would be wrong for Wikipedia to use the word minor because this amounts to some sort of editorial judgment. I find this assertion interesting. It seems to me that we routinely insert adjectives to make sentences interesting and to help paragraphs flow smoothly. Many of these adjectives are unsourced and require judgement calls to be made by editors. Here are some examples from the current version of the article:

1. Kerry's family returned to their home state of Massachusetts shortly after his birth.
 * Who decides what constitutes "shortly"?

2. Summers were spent at the Forbes family estate in France, and Kerry enjoyed much greater extravagance there than he had come to know in Massachusetts.
 * Who decides it was much greater extravagance, not simply greater extravagance? Who decided it was extravagance to begin with?

3. When the Germans fled, they bombed Les Essarts and burnt it down.
 * Are we sure the Germans fled? Maybe they were just attacking in a different direction.  "Fled" could be considered POV by some.

4. At an early age he attended St. Albans School in Washington D.C.
 * What ade is an early age?

5. Despite having difficulty fitting in, he made friends and developed his interests.
 * All kids have some difficulty fitting in. How much difficulty does he have to have had for us to use this word?  Who said he had difficulty?  How do we know he developed friends despite having difficulty.  Maybe he made friends with all the other kids who had "difficulty", so this is what allowed him to fit in?

6. To earn extra money during the summers, he loaded trucks in a grocery warehouse and sold encyclopedias door to door.
 * Who said it was "extra" money? Maybe he felt he needed it.  How much money do you have to have before it is "extra"?

7. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any courses.
 * If we list the D's, do we need to say he didn't fail any courses? Wouldn't that be obvious by omission?

8. Kerry received several combat medals during this tour, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts.
 * How many does it take to be "several"? Why not provide the number?

9. Kerry's military record has received considerable praise and criticism during his political career, especially during his unsuccessful 2004 bid for the presidency.
 * "Considerable" could easilly be considered POV. How much  is "considerable"?

Perhaps some of these examples (8 and 9 perhaps) really should be changed. But some other ones, such as "early" age are pretty harmless, even if they are unsourced.

My point is that all the facts around Kerry's first injury, including him returning to duty the next day, are consistent with a "minor" wound. It is not unreasonalbe for us to actually use that word as a descriptive adjective. To my knowledge, no one has ever denied the wound was minor. The controversy is over whether the injury was worthy of a Purple heart. Those requirements have to do more with circumstances (I.e. received during enemy action) than with severity. Therefore, the inclusion of the descriptive word is justified by the facts and is not taking a POV stance on the actual controversy. Johntex\talk 17:45, 4 November 2005 (UTC)