Why aren't colons optional?

[Arona Ndiaye]

<While I have no comments whatsover on the correctness
<of the grammatical form, I will point out that sometimes
<stodgy old grammaticians who think they know how the
<language _ought_ to be used are sometimes out of touch
<with how their own language is _actually_ used.

On the other hand, those very "stodgy old grammaticians" are the very people 
that allow other people to 'scale', understand a language, test limits 
etc.... Without those persons, there would be no room to expand. What I mean 
is that those very persons contribute to the whole. Every part is useful to 
the whole, whether you agree with its usefulness or not. The very thing that 
defines something as bad is "useful" in that it allows us to use it as a 
model (or the opposite of) to follow/avoid.

Most kind regards,

C//