Former vice-presidential candidate and political activist Sarah Palin is being panned for urging Muslims in New York to “refudiate” their plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the 911 ground zero site of the twin towers.

In a series of tweets she asked “peaceful” New Yorkers and “peace-seeking” Muslims to oppose the plans. One of her tweets reportedly asked Muslims to “refudiate" their plans.

“Refudiate” is not a word, at least according to Webster’s New World Dictionary, third college edition. Maybe she meant “repudiate,” which means to “refuse to have anything to do with..” among other definitions.

But I’m not going to try to second guess Ms. Palin. In fact, I’m not going to even weigh in on the community center and mosque controversy.

But there is a very simple lesson to be learned from her misuse of the English language. We have more than enough high tech devices today to help us communicate with each other — from cell phones to computers to whatever. But many people seem to forget a very old-fashioned yet extremely useful tool that can help all writers and public officials.

If Ms. Palin had only taken a few minutes to look up “refudiate” in a dictionary, she might have saved herself days of embarrassment. Journalists still use this well-established and very informative book — at least they should. It can and has saved considerable angst and distress when their stories get published.

In this fast-paced world, sometimes it is wise to slow down and double check your information.