The exercise of public choices at that level can affect more people in more radical ways than choices elsewhere. In consequence, the symbols, rituals, and mythic actors at that level affect us all personally and make our cultural lives and institutions a part of politics, not just through laws, but through the formation of our identity itself, through or against these images of power. Power is good. The exercise of choice defines our full humanity. Those who are secure in choosing for themselves and others make our history.
Absolute weakness is death.
Democracy is a means of distributing power, of creating conditions and institutions that empower all. The conditions include study and practice in the exercise of responsible choices. Education is perhaps the most important point at which politics and culture are joined, in which power and democracy are the issues to be engaged, and through which we may be empowered. Public schools at all levels, including the University of Wisconsin particularly, seem to me where the action is.