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A Book Review …  and More!

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS

I’m currently reading “American Sphinx – The Character of Thomas Jefferson” by Joseph J. Ellis (1998). According to Ellis, Jefferson was often accused of plagiarism – sometimes even for lifting quotes from his own work. I think if the gifted writer were technically guilty of such a crime, he arguably had forgotten the origin of the “stolen” ideas – much like a composer who unwittingly copies a catchy riff from an obscure song that emerges years after being devoured.

Answering Critics 

Ellis offers this as Jefferson’s standard answer to his critics:

“’Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing,’ he explained, he drew his ideas from ‘the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in letters, printed essays or in the elementary books of pubic right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.’”

We are what we eat.

Not Anonymous

On my good days, I like to compare myself with great people who successfully represented others’ interests in the same spirit as Hippocrates. Like Jefferson, I concentrate sentiment, but in looser wrapped packages. Even though I also cannot always claim authorship of my ideas, like Jefferson, I’m not anonymous.

———————

Wake up, @ADANews. Did you think I was going to somehow disappear? It is probably discouraging to know that I can keep this up for years.

But I don’t think that is necessary. You will surrender soon, ADA, because you are defenseless. You’re policy of silence has you trapped.

Your bureaucracy is caving in on you. The only way out is to renew the ADA’s pledge to be transparent with members. This just has to be.

You can blame one unprofessional ADA member for your PR crisis, and I enthusiastically invite and cherish all blame as a badge of honor.

Yesterday I pointed out that my letter to the editor of the JADA that was never acknowledged suddenly became ME-P’s 8th most popular piece.

ME-P has 221,223 readers … and the JADA? My article had been dormant for months. Know what happened? I posted its link, like this:

Link: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2009/07/28/journal-of-the-american-dental-association-letter-to-the-editor/ 

I just looked at the article’s rank it popularity. It has climbed to #3. It’s not just me. You are being voted out right now, ADA leaders.

Proots   

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, ostensibly risks being discounted in today’s history books because scientists discovered he marked out “subjects” and replaced it with “citizens” in the Declaration? That’s petty. You should see some of the nouns, adjectives and verbs I reject in early drafts – sometimes all three derivatives of the same word.

Assessment

It’s my opinion that it is Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs that’s keeping vocal conservative activists employed in a bad economy – not his alleged desire to be king. A few, loud, slow-thinkers also shop the lame argument that Obama isn’t a US citizen. Let’s move on, already. Regardless how one feels about the man, citizenship is simply a disingenuous dead-end argument. That’s what I think. But that’s an entirely different rant that will one day get a whole new class of disagreeable people pissed at me. Can’t wait.

Conclusion

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Filed under: Book Reviews, Op-Editorials, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: ADA, American Sphinx - The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Darrell Pruitt, Joseph J. Ellis, ME-P | Leave a comment »