Haha, yes, actually. I've referenced the Declaration of Independence several times. You're aware, I'm sure, what the first thirty-five words of the Declaration are, right?:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

These words were written in 1776. Do you think the slaves were helped by the power of these words, that all men were created equal, that all men were endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and happiness? Do you think the institution of slavery, that endured for another ninety years, was compatible with these words? Do you think the following 100 years of segregation were compatible with these words? Do you think that the overwhelming majority of people living in a country where they dutifully chanted these words actually lived by them?

As you say, murderers continue to murder, slaveowners continue to hold slaves, Twaddells continue to "twaddell" and words have very little impact on any of them. Yes, words are important. I'm aware. I literally make my living using the power of words. But ideas, actions, values, and beliefs about oneself matter far more. Words can obviously affect these things. But sadly, thanks to the realities of the human psyche, they're often surprisingly ineffective.

Imagine that "genocide" were defined precisely (which, as we 've already discussed, it's not). Imagine it were defined as the order of 50,000 people, say. The death toll stands currently at ~42,000. Do we sit on your hands until Israel kills another 8,000? When the death toll is at 49,999, does our ability to use the word "genocide" at 50,000 make the slaughter any less horrific? Or should we all, perhaps, be more concerned with the slaughter itself than which term of art we might be able to apply to it. For me, words like slaughter or mass-murder are more than enough to justify action. And they're less ambiguous.