Yesterday's sighting is: Civis Romanus sum (I am a Roman citizen: more information about the origin of this phrase here), a quotation in an article in the Scrapbook section (p. 3) of the Aug 17/Aug 24 2009 issue of The Weekly Standard. The article was quoting a blog post by Max Boot, who was quoting a speech in the House of Commons by Lord Palmerston, Britain's foreign secretary circa 1847. Max Boot ends his post with an opinion which contains today's sighting: "We could use a 'Civis Americanus sum' doctrine today."
Friday, August 21, 2009
Civis Romanus sum
Having spent several weeks this summer outside of the United States, I nevertheless tried to keep up with political doings, because however corny it sounds, I feel that I need to be a responsible citizen. I wrote to my senators and state representative to express my opinion on proposed health-care reform legislation. One way I try to inform myself about different issues is to read The Weekly Standard, a weekly political magazine on the right of the political spectrum. I am not interested in discussing politics here, but I do find that the contributors to this and other magazines and blogs are a great source of Latin sightings.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There was an episode of "The West Wing" entitled "Civis Romanus" in which President Josiah Bartlet references the cache of this phrase throughout the expansive Roman empire. He implies that being an American citizen should also confer similar protection throuhgout the world.
ReplyDelete