Anthony West wrote:
As for the Founding Fathers, they did care deeply about
accountability, transparency, debate and public participation,
although it would never have occurred to any of them to use any of
those precise words as they made their cases -- our language has
changed that much in the past 230 years.
well, you've gone from calling it lofty rhetoric to language
that's different now, but it's hard to see how the f'ing
fathers could have been more clear or relevant about the
principles of our citizenship. "We the people" is about as
basic as you can get to caring deeply about and establishing
an enduring process for accountability, transparency, debate
and public participation.
yes, language is important -- it's how we recognize that "I
did it my way" or "I'm the decider" or "I won" is no excuse
for handling a crisis, whether we're talking about a city
budget, an overseas war, or a nation's economic plan. it's
how we recognize the difference between truths and
sound-bites, values and press releases, principles and
internet memes.
and now that penn praxis has been inserted into nutter's
budget process as a non-elected, non-accountable and
self-serving entity posing as an impartial facilitator, we
need to remain as responsible as ever to principles, as
attentive as ever to language.
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
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