Knowing sort of what the words mean, but checking, anyway, I looked up ‘better angels.’
In the online Wiktionary, ‘better angels’ is defined as the “positive attributes of human character.”
And there’s this, too, in the Charles Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge, in chapter 29; “So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed.”
Those words – ‘better angels’ – mean what they mean. Anyone claiming to have better angels better be on the level. There’s little, if any wiggle room; there’s no BS, no song and dance.
So imagine how amusing it would be to ask prominent people, in the public eye, if they have better angels. And if they say they do, to then ask; How would you describe your better angels?
How would politicians, in particular, handle having to describe, in all honesty, the “positive attributes of their human character?”
Without mentioning anyone by name, what do you suppose a certain Colorado congressional representative, for the 3rd congressional district, would have to say about her better angels?
And, then, imagine what others in Congress and the Senate, and some governors, too, out in Texas, and Florida, and South Carolina, and Kentucky might say. And other politicians, out here in California, where I reside, and Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin politicians… how would they describe their better angels?
I’m forgetting to mention someone else, maybe because he’s been out of office for the better part of a year, but since he’s still hanging around, and still stirring things up, I should bring him up, I suppose, but without mentioning him, by name.
Just imagine what he’d say about his… better angels?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.