 |
Off the piazza in Siena in Tuscany, two murals by Ambrogio Lorenzetti have adorned the Palazzo Pubblico since 1328. One depicts a country in which farmers cultivate rich fields, merchants sell their wares, scholars study, and the people are happy. In the other, there is obvious poverty, people are in chains, the oppression and depression are palpable. The two panels are titled “Good Government” and “Bad Government.” They knew then, in 1328, as we have relearned in recent years, that there is a direct relationship between -people’s security, health, prosperity, and happiness and the concerted practice of good government. If we stop denigrating government and using its instruments as partisan punching bags, if we work in a bipartisan way to rebuild our institutions of national security, your government will fail you much less; it could even make you proud of it once more. |
|
|
