We who are about to die

I am an editor at the better newspaper (there's two rival newspapers. Interesting and long history behind that) at my school. I give them advice on layout (which they don't want to take) and fix things they mess up (sometimes without telling them, and they don't realize why it's so much better). I also update their website, usually on a weekly basis.

I try to give them their space; they're all editors who are more important than I, with specific expectations on how their newspaper is run. I am something of an outsider and loner, having leaped into an editor position since I'd already climbed the ranks at my other school.

I usually don't comment on what they do.

Except, this time, they wrote something in their editorial that struck me. They wrote, "We at the ______ salute you." They were writing it to the young voters who turned out in record numbers for this election. This particular statement struck me because I've learned about Roman history. I've even watched the well-made movie Gladiator. I hope you have as well, because it is really a good movie, despite the incest and gore. There is a scene where the gladiators stand in the ring, prepared to die. They face the emperor, salute him, and shout, "We who are about to die salute you."

Historical fact: gladiators saluted the emperor when they were about to die--dying for the entertainment of the masses, who wanted gore and bread.

I'm not sure what the use of this particular phrase says about my newspaper, or my school, or my country. I merely found it to be an unfortunate use of words that were usually the last words of a man condemned to death, before he fought for his life in front of a crowd who could determine his fate merely by the position of an outstretched thumb.