Maligning Americans

This was first published May 1, 2013

The mother of the two Boston bombers has blamed the United States for everything about her sons. She has said the events were staged to frame her boys. Now I know mothers can be in denial about the actions of their kids, but the Tsarnaev family was taken into this country from Russia a decade ago and according to the latest reports, they received housing, food and educational assistance, seemingly totaling into the tens of thousands of dollars. The youngest son became an American citizen just last year and initial reports indicated he was given a hefty college scholarship amount. Now I'll admit, all of this is pretty hostile treatment at the hands of us Americans and many people, I'm sure, would love to be treated so harshly. In the last couple of years the mother seems to have gone from a westernized lifestyle, including clothing, to more traditional Muslim apparel, an act that is certainly not against the law, but which "might" suggest a turn toward fundamentalist religion, especially if reports about telephone conversations recorded by the Russian government between the older son and his mother are correct. The reports say there was much talk about religion and even jihad, a term used by extremist elements for "holy war." Again, discussing religion is not against the law, but all of this will have to be put into context over time, as more and more information comes to light. 
    
WORD HISTORY:
Should- This word, the past form of "shall," goes back to Indo European "skel," which had the notion of "be obliged to do something, owe." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "skulan," which meant "to owe, be obligated;" thus also, "have guilt;" that is, "owe a debt for an illegal act." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sellan/sculan" (the "sc" pronounced like "sh"), with many of the same meanings, the present tense of which became "shall." The past tense was "scolde," which then later became "should." While "shall" lost much of its connection to the meanings "owe" and "obligation," as it came to be used for future tense, "should" has retained the notion of  "ought to, obliged to do." The meaning of "owe, guilty;" that is, "be indebted for a crime," was once prominent English, as the closely related English word "scyld" meant "guilt, debt, liability" and German still has the closely related "Schuld" for "debt, guilt."