I'm enjoying this exchange as initiated and fueled by Ben and others and
thought I would stay as 'lurker' on this one. But I couldn't let this one
slip by.
Ben Compton wrote:
> 1- America is rich in culture, to the point of being inclusive of a number
> of cultures, yet it was conceived as a "commerical republic." The whole
> point of the American experience was to let humans benefit from the
> efforts of their labor.
I think that Wiliam Penn, Roger Williams, and the Carrolls of Maryland
(all seeking religious freedom) might disagree. There are many reasons
that go into the founding of the republic. We're looking at the past and
making our current decisions fit with certain elements from that past. I
humbly submit that it isn't just one thing or another: it's an array of
forces. We make it simple so that we can get one with it.
I like the idea of 'triage' from another thread on this list. In an ER you
do, however, give injuries a more serious look when the pace is less busy.
Or the situation insists that you give them as much of a look as they
require to be treated sufficiently. USA's (or any republic's) founding
and its influence on what we do today is more complicated than the above
would suggest. The key is (for me) finding the proper level of discourse
that moves the conversation in an informed fashion but doesn't get bogged
down in extraneous detail. This stuff makes a difference because we are
talking about the premises of a conviction and more immediately of this
thread.
All the best,
-- T.J. Elliott Cavanaugh Leahy http://idt.net/~tjell 914 366-7499Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>