one more again.....sigh !

I really don't want to go down this road again,... but as we seem to be on the topic of semantics, another two words came up today at work that I am having multiple thoughts about .... the words are... request, and suggestion. At first glance their seems to be no real discernible difference. In a restaurant for instance, requesting, or suggesting a glass or water is pretty much the same thing. Is a suggestion really a nice way of requesting something. Is this the passive way of, requesting what we want, do to the fear of confrontation. Is this the safe way out to protect our inner child from the inevitable bruises in life? The possibility of rejection. If so what is our real fear? Better yet, how do we get past these fears?