“The Public” Disappears
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“There is no such thing as society.”
– Margaret Thatcher
The word public, as in public schools or public option, has become a dirty word in, uh, public life. The question is, can a nation survive once it has abandoned not just moral notions of the public good but the positive notion that there is a public?
Authorities in Fort Worth, Texas, apparently at the urging of their oil industry benefactors, removed the word “public” from the name of the city library. It’s now the Fort Worth Library, not the Fort Worth Public Library. Why? They explain the reason in their press release: the word “public” has “negative connotations.”
Chisara N. Asomugha, a Connecticut physician and ordained minister, wrote in the Washington Post:
Have you ever noticed that when “public” is used descriptively in conversation — public school, public transportation, public (or county) hospital — the quality of the item is called into question?
