Obama’s Language Mandate: Why It Feels Like Hungarian to Me
Spanish. Hungarian. Sanskrit. are all admirable languages, I’m sure, and other things being equal, your mind is better furnished by knowing them than by not. Still, they none of them can match the study of Latin for instilling the discipline of study, for developing reasoning powers, for acquainting us with the foundations of our Western Civilization (a four-letter word to the enemy), and for teaching sound morals. Flipping through my basic Latin textbook….On avarice: Semper avarus eget
On peace: Si vis pacem, para bellum…
On hard work: Labor omnia vicit….
On education: Officium sine litteris mors est…o
On courage in misfortune: Fortuna adversa virum magnae sapientiae non terret…
Obama doubtless picked up some Latin when he was the star and glory of shyster school, but clearly none of its benefits rubbed off.
