To the Editor:
The year was 1966, my senior year at Pilgrim High School. I was in Latin III class with a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Ethel Reid.
We were studying Horace, an ancient poet and …
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To the Editor:
The year was 1966, my senior year at Pilgrim High School. I was in Latin III class with a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Ethel Reid.
We were studying Horace, an ancient poet and scholar of that time. I struggled often, trying to translate his “deep writings” into English. One in particular, which I don’t remember the Latin, but when translated into English read: “Times change and we are changed by them.” That one sentence stayed with me over the next almost 50 years.
Today, more than ever, that phrase has come full circle and is so true. Have times changed? Technology alone has changed the world and certainly has changed us. The way we travel, dress, work, school and play have also totally changed. The way we interact with others has also been altered. Emails, texts, tweets, Skype and iPhones are the mode of communication.
With this said, change and being changed is not always necessarily good. The whole culture of our great nation seems to be slippery. People don’t talk as much to each other, as they are always on the “machines.” Dress codes, language, respect for parents and authority is being phased out. People’s attitude about teachers, police, and government leaders is deteriorating. God, faith, family and patriotism is being put aside as we have changed from a “We the People” nation to a “what’s good for me” world.
The phrase, “Times change and we are changed by them,” doesn’t have to rule the day for the detriment of our great nation.
Richard D. Walsh
East Greenwich
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Conspiracy
The biggest change of all in the last 30 years, especially the last 20 has been shipping all of the good paying factory jobs to mexico and china. This has decimated the middle class and made our country teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Good, smart able bodied adults are now delivering pizzas and working as security guards,. GOD help us all! That has been the biggest change of all!
Sunday, November 8, 2015 Report this
ronruggieri
[ Tempora mutantur is a Latin adage meaning "times change". It is also stated in various longer hexametric forms, most commonly Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, meaning "Times change, and we change with them". The phrase is not found in Classical Latin, but is a variant of phrases of Ovid, to whom it is sometimes misattributed. Instead, it dates to early/mid 16th century Germany, in the context of the Protestant Reformation, and it subsequently was popularized in various forms. See history for history and other forms.]
True , time change but the Internet should make possible a revival of Ancient Latin in the public schools. Many hot topics in the news had their moral equivalent in the late Roman Republic.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015 Report this