It always amazes me when someone uses the word "all" in reference to a group of people, such as gender, religious, professional, age, race, national origin or anything else. The reason this began to trouble me many years ago was a conversation, of which I was a party, where someone made reference to men, a group to which I belong, and "how they are." In fact, the attribute, characteristic, nature or other aspect of men to which this person referred was clearly not one that I shared and I was, quite honestly, anxious to inform the person of this. All of which, after some additional consideration, led me to the realization that although it comes quickly and frequently to the mind (and to the lips), the word "ALL" should be employed only with the utmost discretion, unless of course you are referring to a smaller, more manageable group than 'men', such as 'the three stooges', 'two of my friends' or maybe even 'a dozen eggs.' Another recent conversation involved me where another man was considering that portion of the population to which I will refer to here as women, in a somewhat dismissive and disparaging way. More specifically, and also unfortunately, he cited as his evidence female members of his own immediate family. My efforts to diplomatically bring to his attention that female members of my family were in fact not so easily categorized, a fact that in utilizing logic, negated his entire premise. At this point, it appeared that he had finally gotten my proverbial 'drift.' But then before parting he smirked and said, 'But you know they're ALL cut from the same cloth.'
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