Splitting Infinitives

I love the English language. I love language of all sorts, the idea that we manage to communicate and sometimes get it right. Because I love language, I sometimes become protective of it. Although I like the idea of flux in grammar and words, what we have accepted in order to communicate well should not be treated frivolously. Some poetic license can be inspiring, but repeated, erroneous word use irritates me.
One aspect of word use that gets to me is overuse, often by the media, of a term that is supposed to be bigger than itself. One recent example is the word transparency when applied to government or industry. To demand transparency makes one sound so bloody cool. Let the Mitchell report on drug use in baseball exhibit transparency. That solves everything, doesn't it? If only all of politics were transparent.
Another overused, bigger than life term is closure. I do have sympathy for people who are caught on camera after losing a loved one to crime, at least the first time they are "caught" by the camera. I do wonder if there are a few ringers who travel from crisis to crisis to moan about what a good boy he was before he got into drugs, and, oh all we need is some closure. But today I was thrilled by the front page article in the St. Louis Post about the "closure" of Highway 40. At last, closure! Why aren't we all celebrating? Where are the toothless aunts and uncles and cousins who have longed for closure, never having only sought media attention for themselves? Now is the time to come out of the woodwork and dance on the highway. Enough of the nay-saying about traffic problems. We finally have closure.