Forgot to thank you for the Happy Fourth wishes. They read our Declaration of Independence this morning on the radio, reminding me that George III was once
our king too.
Really amazing text in that document. They've been reporting lately how language is becoming "dumbed down," that 30 years ago the average speech in congress scored out to a 13th grade level (first year of college) and that now the average speech is on a 9th grade level.
In comparison, Thomas Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence is on a PhD dissertation level, using words like "consanguinity", and they read the thing to the people on the streets all over the new country, and people then understood it all. I doubt many of today's high school graduates would understand half of it, or would bother to try.