John Roach, Madison Magazine Columnist

"I like to think our grand democratic experiment, though flawed, doggedly aspires to something better for all. We began with slavery but fought to extinguish it. Women were denied the vote. It was corrected. When fascism threatened the entire world, we defeated it.

“Fear is used by politicians and other partisans to manipulate and motivate us to fear and hate others, to give our support to candidates and causes that we wouldn’t otherwise support, to get us to turn on each other and to destroy our democracy from the inside out. Conversely, freedom from fear allows us to be bolder, to live more openly, and speak more freely—all necessary elements for a healthy democracy.”

Nan Wadieh, Grade 3

“The reason you should accept people the way they are is because everybody is different and people have feelings as soft as feathers.” 

Found on page 6

From the article “Stars and Stripes”

Found on page 4

Who Said It?

Responses from “Revisiting Rockwell” Local Discussions

  • "Selfies" by Maggie Meiners

    “We see everything through our own filter. Perception is a strange thing. With today’s technology, we can look however we want to look.”

  • Dream Act by Maggie Meiners

    “What memories will this young migrant have of her initial experiences in the U.S.? Is this the best we can do?”

  • “News” travels fast in small towns! Be nice. Be careful and generous.”

  • “She appears to be a successful woman who still can’t protect her children… how much less we are touched by some fears than this woman.”

“I think saving democracy will take more, not just from elected officials or civic leaders or the media, but more from each of us. We’re going to have to start, I think, from putting our cynicism down.”

— Deval Patrick, Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School

Picture of Benjamin Ginsberg

“We are so polarized that the different sides are not talking to each other at all.  It seems to me that if there is an avenue that’s going to work, it has to be that we all swallow hard and again start talking to people with who we really don’t agree, and maybe things we don’t respect, to see if there is common ground.” 

Benjamin Ginsberg, Co-chair of the Election Officials Legal Defense Network, quoted in “Where Does Democracy Go From Here?” by Charles Homans in the New York Times Magazine on March 20, 2022.

From “America, Where We Demonize Our Enemies and Demand Purity From Our Friends,”

“…We are no longer a country of give-and-take. We are a country torn apart by something closer to religious strife, where both sides demand devotion to doctrine and rough punishments await those who step out of line.”

Brian Boome, Opinion Columnist for the Washington Post on June 22, 2022.

Some Surprising Thoughts from Former Presidents…

Thomas Jefferson, Slave Holder and Founding Father

“If against these Indians, the end should be their extermination or removal beyond the lakes or the Illinois river. The same world will scarcely do for them and us.”

A political cartoon drawn by Thomas Nash in 1869.

Andrew Jackson, 1830

“Is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian?”