By John Sweeney
Published: April 24, 2011
FLORENCE, SC —
“Wonk” is a fun word. It sounds like an insult of some kind, a slur that would start a riot at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory.
But the joke was on me when I looked up the definition and found “wonk” has three possible meanings: A student who studies constantly and has little or no social life; a stupid, boring, or unattractive person; someone who studies a subject or issue in an excessively diligent and thorough manner.
Hopefully, Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela, attorney Gary Finklea or Florence City Councilman Steve Powers weren’t offended by my referring to them “wonks” in an article on the “Majority Rules—Minority Rights” forum last week on SCNow.com.
I was subscribing to the third definition of the term, what I consider to be the “right kind” of wonks, of which I consider myself a member. Wukela, Finklea and Powers’ thoughts on government were interesting to people like us and it was a fascinating evening; however, it is doubtful Tuesday’s event fulfilled the goal of the Founders Coalition, the event’s sponsor, to educate the public on the principles of the Founding Fathers.
Forgetting the fact that the principles of men like Jefferson, Madison and Adams are up for interpretation — something the Supreme Court has reminded us of constantly since it debuted 1790 — the pursuit of the Founders Coalition is admirable nonetheless.
Stimulating thought and stoking the fires of debate is vital to a free nation, something discussions like the one had last Tuesday certainly accomplished, but those in attendance were hardly the ones who needed to be there.
The small audience was made up mostly of citizens already involved in the political process through one facet or another. Only two of the roughly 20 faces were ones I had not seen at a city council meeting or public forum since I started at the Morning News at the beginning of this year.
Coalition Chairman Ron Moore acknowledged that the discussion was quite in-depth and perhaps not something that people without an acute interest in government might find interesting.
“But what we believe is unless we get the general public beyond the ‘red meat’ and get them into dialogue and listening to these principals and how different people approach those principals and apply the principals in every day governance, we’re going to be in the same type of situation that we have now going forward,” Moore added following the forum.
People have different loves and passions and not everyone will be as fascinated by the workings of government like the wonks who attended last week, but it’s nice to know that groups like the Founders Coalition are doing what they can to stimulate thought and debate.
After all, it would be nice to have the right kind of wonks.