What depresses me most is to read letters home from the front. Compare letters home from the Civil War to the Vietnam war.
This nation robbed her sons of the classical education they deserved. Rather than turn that around, the devolution has continued apace.
When we look at the wrongs now fait accompli, all initiated in the name of doing good, public education has to be on the top of the list. We will never regain the English language until public education is dead and buried.
I imagine you and others will enjoy this:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html
I am not as certain as some of the rest of you regarding the immutability of language. I would actually be pleased if there were some changes to the average language policeman's law book. For instance, taking issue with improper uses of who/whom, that/which, and bring/take really seems a bit too persnickety in my book. Conversationally, I can't see people making these decisions easily while speaking on the fly, just as they do not do so in avoiding a preposition dangling at sentence's end. I do understand the need for precise language, but often English has already surrendered in areas I would never have waved the white flag.
Top of the list? The word "inflammable." Why does it mean flammable, too? Might as well have the words "competent" and "incompetent" mean the same thing! I want "inflammable" back meaning NOT flammable so that I know which bucket to pitch onto the fire!
I prefer not to carp on English errors, but I do know that if I were hiring an executive, the one who misspelled in his resume would not be getting the job were it one where he represented our company to the public.