As I watched it rise up from the ground, words can not describe my feeling.
France's foreign minister, Alain Juppé, told reporters in Paris on Tuesday that he remained "absolutely opposed to a deployment of troops on the ground, " words echoed on Wednesday by Defense Minister Gérard Longuet, who said the Security Council resolution permitting airstrikes did not authorize the use of foreign ground forces.
Mr. Russ emphasized that Twitter-mining is unlikely to replace the kind of old-fashioned, on-the-ground word hunting that produced the Dictionary of American Regional English.
A toolshed burned to the ground; the word arson was uttered.
Indeed, after reacting negatively to the overnight ruling that hand-recounted ballots from predominantly Democratic counties must be tallied, raising hopes in the camp of Vice President Al Gore, the market briefly regained some ground on word favorable to Gov. George W. Bush that Miami-Dade County had halted its recount.
I can admit that finding common ground between word and action can be difficult.
Watching the landing at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert, I found myself repeating the air-to-ground communications word-for-word because I'd had the STS-1 landing audio as my ringtone for several months last year.
This lets us know where we are, intellectually: on tendentious ground, where words wobble.
When the people on the ground rose, words were written inside the outlines: "Ailene, age 6," "boy," "murdered," "background check".
Thomas L. Friedman has it right when he says "Hamas deeds on the ground," not words, "would reassure Israelis" ("Let Hamas Sink or Swim on Its Own," column, Feb. 17).
But there were actions on the ground and words in the air, traveling in profanity-laced shouts and mumbled prayers, that are burned into memory, captured by cameras, written on scraps.
