A Vote For Latin by Harry Mount, from the December 3rd, 2007, New York Times:
At first glance, it doesn’t seem tragic that our leaders don’t study Latin anymore. But it is no coincidence that the professionalization of politics — which encourages budding politicians to think of education as mere career preparation — has occurred during an age of weak rhetoric, shifting moral values, clumsy grammar and a terror of historical references and eternal values that the Romans could teach us a thing or two about. As they themselves might have said, “Roma urbs aeterna; Latina lingua aeterna.”
Latin Lessons: O Tempora, O Mores: reader letters to the New York Times in response to Harry Mount's article.
BONUS: Harry Mount's article translated into Latin.
Full Disclosure: In April I was contacted by a photo researcher from Hyperion, Harry Mount's publisher, asking permission to reprint one of my Italy photos in the US edition of Mount's new book Carpe Diem: Put A Little Latin In Your Life. I would receive photographer credit but no compensation. I said I'd give my permission in exchange for a classroom set of the book (I'm a teacher, darn it). The researcher told me that she'd see what could be done, but I never heard back from her again.
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