by Shannon Takahashi

Created on: August 17, 2008   Last Updated: March 15, 2010

Title: To Mourn the Dearth of Eloquence

Article: On the morning of July 4, while listening to National Public Radio (NPR) I heard the broadcast of a reading of the Declaration of Independence, with each of the NPR correspondents reading a section. I was riveted, not only by the sentiments of the authors, but by the eloquence of their writing. While listening to the prose of our forefathers it was notable that there was absolutely no ambiguity in their statements, no question of their resolve. If the English did not believe from reading this Declaration that war was coming, they were truly asleep at the switch.

While listening to the written cadence of another time, the question arose for me whether or not the informality seeping into our language has any effect on our lives as Americans. There was a time in our early history, prior to radio and television, when people gathered for dramatic readings as an evening's entertainment. The written word was the one common thread running through these gatherings; a public exchange of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and information. Writing provided then, and provides still, the most intimate forum for the transfer of such from the mind of one person to another.

A gifted author has the innate ability to paint a portrait every bit as evocative as any sculpture done by a great artist, and incredible courage is required to put pen to paper and share one's innermost thoughts. What will the aspiring authors of the future use to give their work substance if we lose not only the vocabulary that brings the written word to life, but the ability to understand it when read. We are not only losing our formality; we are losing the depth of expression that we had in the past. Language is a living, breathing entity, and we now have new idioms being added to the dictionary as soon as they become recognized as having attained common usage. Unfortunately, these new terms are overwhelmingly what would have previously been considered the most guttural slang.

Thomas Jefferson, et al. wrote, " But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States."

I can see these men who understand so well the power channeled through their pens. In my mind's eye they are gathered around a table lit only by candlelight. The level of their passion knows no bounds, as it is fueled by their belief in the task they set for themselves. As the government they sacrificed to create marches doggedly forward in the erosion its own Constitution, I have to wonder what form a current day call to arms might take? What would those dedicated men have to say to us about what we, the people, have allowed to become the state of the union they believed in so deeply. Can you imagine them telling us "Dude, it's time to open a can of whoop-ass on the man."?

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