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Veliaj through Arta Dade rejects Edi Rama's "anti-rally"

Former Foreign Minister, Arta Dade, has publicly rejected ...

The word has soul.

2026-06-12 12:08:00, Opinione Lutfi Dervishi

The word has soul.

"In the beginning was the Word." Perhaps there is no more famous sentence in the history of mankind. It is found at the beginning of the Gospel according to John and it is no coincidence that the beginning of everything is connected with the word and not with force, not with money, not with power, not with weapons. And the word is not just sound and letter, nor simply a means of communication. The word has a soul.

In a time when words are mass-produced, spread at the speed of light, and forgotten within seconds, it seems as if we have lost the ability to stop and think about the weight each one carries.

An old article from 1890 in The New York Sun explains this mystery beautifully: “You cannot get tears out of words unless you have first left them there.” Words are like little boats that carry what we load on them: love or hate, hope or despair, light or poison. That is why some sentences remain forever, while others die before they are even spoken. It was not the words that made Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address immortal, but the feelings, the pain, the responsibility, and the hope he placed in them. After all, people often forget what you said, but they rarely forget how you made them feel.

Our tradition has also always treated the word as something sacred. In the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, the word is not simply a promise, but an honor, a guarantee, and a moral contract. A man may not have wealth or power, but if he has the word, he has everything; the “given word” was worth more than anything.

Today we live in the era of free speech, but we often forget that free speech is not necessarily responsible speech.

On social media, words are commonly used to attack, humiliate, and create virtual mobs that lynch real people. In television debates, they are used to interrupt, not to listen; in Parliament, to label/humiliate the opponent. Politics uses them to deceive, propaganda to lull, slander to poison, half-truths to hide reality.

But you can't put words in the dock. Just as the knife that saves a life in the operating room is the same knife that can take it out on the street for a "why are you looking at me," words can heal or hurt. A word can save a person from despair, stop a conflict, ignite a revolution, overthrow a regime, or comfort someone who has lost everything.

In the ongoing protests, a clever meme or slogan sticks in the mind longer than political speeches, because in a few words they summarize the anger, dissatisfaction, humor, disappointment, and hope of thousands of people.

When words find the right rhythm, moment, and emotion, they are not just words because they turn into collective energy.

Sometimes just one word is enough.

Prandaj, zgjedhja e fjalës nuk është çështje stili, por karakteri. Njeriu tregon veten jo vetëm nga ajo që bën, por edhe nga fjalët që zgjedh. Në fund të fundit, fjalët më me ndikim nuk janë ato që bërtasin, por ato që janë thënë me shpirt. Ndoshta ky është testi më i mirë për secilin prej nesh: para se të shkruajmë një fjali, para se të bëjmë një postim apo koment, para se të flasim në ekran apo në parlament duhet pyetur vetja: çfarë po them?

Sepse fjala ka peshë, ka pasojë, ka shpirt. E sa rrallë, këto kohë, dëgjojmë të thuhet për dikë: “Ai/ajo foli me shpirt...”/ CNA