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Article: NOTEBOOK.
- Article from:
- Harper's Magazine
- Article date:
- May 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Harper's Magazine Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Most of the grounds of the world's troubles are matters of grammar.
--Montaigne
From time to time during last year's election campaign Vice President Al Gore remarked on the increasingly inequitable distribution of the nation's assets--73 percent of the wealth accruing to accounts held by 10 percent of the citizenry--and whenever he did so Governor George W. Bush accused him of "fomenting class warfare." The governor took offense at the suggestion that America somehow had divided itself into a nation of the rich and a nation of the poor, and his speechwriters were put to some pains to refute the evil rumors of distinctions being made on the basis of net ...