Today I use this space to respond to Ann Landers response. Knowing that you are a widely read and respected columnist who from time to time prints letters from readers about the abuse of language, I am surprised by and disappointed in your answer to English Major in Ohio. I am aware that English is a living language. Like a tree, language sheds its leaves and grows new ones so that it may live on. But to recognize the reality of and the need for change does not mean that we must accept the mindless permissiveness that pervades the use of English in our society.
Correct usage is written on the sand.
The operative words here are written and sand. It may be that the sand will one day blow away or erode, but at any given moment the sand exists and so does the code. Due to is loudly knocking on the door of the house once occupied by because of and, for most of us under 50, what was once almost universally called a lectern has transmogrified into a podium. To announce to your gazillions of readers that we should shrug our collective shoulders at widespread usage errors because people become accustomed to them and that very little can be done about such atrocities is to do a disservice to the English language and those who speak and write it. The United Press International Stylebook cautions, A burro is an ass.