Welcome to issue 102 of the award-winning iScot Magazine. Today’s sermon is about the power and perils of words…

Specific lessons remain etched in memory, their impact undiminished by time. A former English teacher once recounted a story that began ostensibly as an account of a sadistic criminal – a man who engaged in acts of calculated and horrific violence. The narrative painted a picture of a perpetrator who took a knife to unclothed women, cutting them open as they screamed, deriving both pleasure and financial gain from their suffering. He had performed these acts multiple times and, unthinkably, upon the storyteller’s wife.

The revelation, however, was that this individual was a surgeon performing caesarean sections. The horror was an illusion, a manipulation of language and perspective. The teacher’s warning followed: Be mindful of how you present information, lest people draw the wrong conclusions.