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The Hill
21-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Tocqueville's forgotten solution to America's democratic crisis
To save our democracy, the 19th-century French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville would tell us, start a book club. Join a church. Or, perhaps most crucially, volunteer at a local school or run for school board. The specific activity matters less — what's essential is coming together with fellow citizens for a common purpose. This may sound inconsequential when compared to the present challenges to our democracy, but it's rooted in Tocqueville's penetrating observations of early America. Having witnessed his own relatives falling to the guillotine during the French Revolution, he understood democracy's dangers as well as its promise. In 1831, he journeyed to America to study its democratic experiment and distill lessons to guide France's turbulent political evolution. What he saw amazed him. 'Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations,' he wrote. They gathered in churches, town halls, libraries, charitable organizations, colleges and more. He watched Americans resolving disputes, pursuing shared goals across partisan lines, and investing in one another—practicing democracy. These local, face-to-face acts that were possible only in the emerging democratic social order trained citizens to act collectively and formed counterweights to centralized authority and to mass movements. Yet this civic vitality did not emerge spontaneously: Education, Tocqueville argued, was its vital seedbed. 'It cannot be doubted,' Tocqueville wrote, 'that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic.' Early American colleges aimed to form citizens, not just workers. They taught not only practical skills but also the art of self-governance. Education forms citizens. Citizens, working together, create and sustain democracy. Today, we're headed the wrong way. When education becomes a partisan battlefield — through defunding universities, constraining academic inquiry, or promoting ideological conformity on campuses — we undermine a fundamental democratic institution, one that is especially critical to build the next generation's ability to practice democracy. History is clear: When authoritarianism or ideological conformity rises, liberal education is an early target. And it is exactly liberal education, the institution freely trading ideas vital to nourishing democracy, that must be defended and grown. Democrats and Republicans alike, and too many educational institutions themselves, tend to measure education's value exclusively by graduates' salaries, not by their value to the health of the republic. This undervalues education's purpose in democracy. Education must remain steadfast in its role as a cornerstone of democracy, not just as a pathway to prosperity. At St. John's College, where I am president, we uphold the root meaning of liberal education— the education that frees. This is the education America needs now. Our 'great books' curriculum brings students together around a seminar table to discuss texts reflecting every pole of our society's political, religious, and moral axes, from Aristotle to Baldwin, Adam Smith to Marx, Aquinas to Nietzsche. This education is at least as broad as the range of our society's fundamental values, because these texts are the sources or classic statements of those values. This breadth of inquiry explodes ideological bubbles, requiring students to consider ideas they would usually dismiss. Students must articulate reasoned positions and listen attentively even to those they disagree with, working together to reach deeper understanding. Each seminar table really becomes a miniature republic, where ideas clash but people cooperate — a model that can thrive in settings from community colleges to public high schools to neighborhood book clubs. When students wrestle with Aristotle's Politics or Locke's Second Treatise, they engage with foundational questions of self-governance. When they read Shakespeare or Dostoevsky, they develop empathy and moral imagination — capacities that counteract the dehumanization of opponents that fuels hyper-partisanship and degrades democracy. When they read Euclid or Einstein, they develop habits of logical reasoning and the ability to weigh evidence. These texts develop precisely the capacities Tocqueville identified as essential for civic health in a democracy. Most importantly, liberal education nurtures what Tocqueville called 'self-interest rightly understood'—the recognition that individual flourishing depends on collective wellbeing. This perspective counters the narrow self-interest that undermines civic friendship. By engaging with texts across centuries and cultures in community, students discover their own interests are bound up with a broader human collective. The decline in civic engagement that Tocqueville would have found alarming is all too familiar in contemporary America. In 2000, Robert Putnam's 'Bowling Alone' documented a civic withdrawal that has helped lead to our weakened democratic institutions. Yuval Levin's 'A Time to Build' updated this argument in 2020 and challenged us to renew our institutions. Church membership fell from 70 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2020. In 2018, for the first time, less than half of households reported any charitable giving. Union membership reached a record low of 9.9 percent in 2024. And we have now seen a profound collapse in confidence in our institutions of higher education. This civic vacuum isn't just unfortunate — it is dangerous. We become strangers to one another, vulnerable to manipulation and increasingly unable to distinguish fact from fiction. Here's the challenge: Our democracy is eroding rapidly, and civic culture builds slowly. And Tocqueville warns us that there is no shortcut. 'In democratic countries, the art of association is the mother of art; the progress of all the rest depends upon the progress it has made.' Democratic preservation requires both immediate work to counter democratic breakdown and long-term investment in our civic infrastructure. So don't allow the chaos of national politics to paralyze or overwhelm you. Tocqueville reminds us that democracy is not only defended in courtrooms and capitals—its living roots are in living rooms, classrooms and local halls. Go to a city council meeting. Volunteer at the library. Champion liberal education. When we do so, we quietly stitch the fabric of our democracy—thread by thread, action by action — before it unravels beyond repair. J. Walter Sterling is the President of St. John's College in Santa Fe.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Tamaqua Liberty Tree Park will be home to special sapling
TAMAQUA — It's just an empty lot across from the Tamaqua Railroad Station, but in Micah Gursky's eyes it will blossom into a proud tribute to the founding of the United States of America. On a recent visit to the site, formerly occupied by several blighted buildings, Gursky outlined plans for Tamaqua Liberty Tree Park. 'Right now, we're filling in the lot to bring it up to sidewalk level,' said Gursky, director of the Tamaqua Community Partnership. 'But in late August or early September, it will become the home of Schuylkill County's Liberty Tree.' * The site for Liberty Tree Park sits across the tracks along Railroad St. from the Tamaqua Railroad Station, pictured Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * Rendering of proposed Liberty Tree Park in Tamaqua. (Courtesy image) Show Caption 1 of 2 The site for Liberty Tree Park sits across the tracks along Railroad St. from the Tamaqua Railroad Station, pictured Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Expand All of Pennsylvania's 67 counties will receive a sapling Liberty Tree to commemorate next year's celebration of the 250th anniversary, or semi-quincentennial, of the founding of the United States. The saplings are genetic offspring of the last surviving Liberty Tree, a 400-year-old Tulip Poplar on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. Alive when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, it died of damage inflicted by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Arborists had bud-grafted offspring to produce authentic descendants prior to the tree's demise. The America250PA Commission, the organization that will distribute the saplings, selected Tamaqua as the site of Schuylkill County's Liberty Tree. In its application, Tamaqua had drafted a plan to acquire blighted properties on N. Railroad Street, across from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area visitor's center in the railroad station, and transform the property into a park. THE PARK The Tamaqua Community Partnership, which submitted the application for the tree, recently unveiled architect's renderings of the Liberty Tree park. The tree lies at the center of a grassy area, raised about 18-inches above a plaza from which it can be viewed. Adjacent to the tree is a flagpole, and a large Tamaqua Liberty Tree Park: 1776-2026 billboard-style sign. There's also a historic marker explaining the origin of the Liberty Tree. The public can view the tree from a sidewalk-level plaza, which includes interpretive displays with names of Revolutionary War era patriots from the Tamaqua area. Lighting will illuminate the park at night. Brian Connely, Tamaqua borough council president, said members of the Daughters of the American Revolution compiled names of Revolutionary War veterans for the Liberty Tree application. 'A lot of people worked together on it,' he said. 'It's definitely an honor.' ANNOUNCEMENT Joseph G. Martoccio, district director of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and America250PA, announced the awarding of Schuylkill County's Liberty Tree at a news conference in November 2024. 'These trees are not only a symbol of the past,' he said, 'but were planting them as a symbol of the future.' The news conference was attended by local, county and state officials. State Sen. David G. Argall, R-29, Rush Twp., suggested the restoration of the former Reading Railroad station in Tamaqua figured in the placement of the Liberty Tree. Built 150 years ago, it was a departure point for local troops serving in World War I and World War II. The U.S. Postal Service included the station in a First-Class Forever Stamp issue of historic railroad stations in 2023. State Rep. Jamie Barton, R-124, East Brunswick Twp., explained the history of the first Liberty Tree. An elm planted around 1646 in Boston Common, it was the gathering place of the Sons of Liberty and became a symbol of American resistance to British rule during the American Revolution. 'They gathered to fight for freedom and liberty,' Barton said, 'and the tree became a beacon of hope and a symbol of American freedom.' FUNDRAISER The Tamaqua Remembers Committee, an arm of the Tamaqua Community Partnership, has launched a capital campaign to underwrite the cost of the Liberty Tree Park. The committee has set a goal of raising $100,000 to pay for the development of the park and its outdoor space. There are several levels of donations, ranging from the Commonwealth level of $50,000 on down. For information on donations, which can be by check or online, contact the Tamaqua Community Partnership at 570-668-2770.
Newsweek
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
The Tools to Rebuild Our Civil Society Are on Our Book Shelves
"The beginning is the most important part of any work," Plato writes in The Republic, "especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed." What Plato knew—and what we've forgotten—is that a healthy civil society does not begin in politics. It begins in education. And not education in the narrow, technical sense, but education in first principles: freedom, equality, law, justice, reason, and the responsibilities of the citizen. These reflect values and ideals by which we live, but their meaning is not self-evident —they must be discovered and debated, learned and earned, and intentionally taught. And the most enduring forms through which to teach them are the "Great Books," the enduring classics of our intellectual tradition, from the Bible and the Iliad to works by authors ranging from Plato to Augustine, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Nietzsche and beyond. These are the foundational works that have shaped our ideas of truth, justice, beauty, and the self. The Great Books movement viewed direct reading and discussion of such classic texts as foundational to undergraduate education and to an educated citizenry. Core curricula at the University of Chicago and Columbia University have roots in this movement, as does my own institution, St. John's College. This approach is central to the ever expanding K-to-12 Classical Education movement. Socrates (469 - 399 BC) the Greek philosopher drinks hemlock, surrounded by his grieving friends and followers, 399 BC. Socrates (469 - 399 BC) the Greek philosopher drinks hemlock, surrounded by his grieving friends and followers, 399 as with everything today, the Great Books are widely misunderstood, because they are viewed through the lens of political ideology. On the right, they are often treated as cultural property—prized more as artifacts of Western identity than as living texts that challenge us and demand moral seriousness. On the left, they are still too often dismissed as relics of a colonial, misogynistic, or patriarchal past, a curriculum of dead white men irrelevant or antithetical to our struggles for freedom and equality. But the Great Books are neither conservative nor progressive. They are human and belong to all of us. They explore the soul and the state, and they wrestle with power, truth, tyranny and freedom. They contain both the roots of liberal democracy and the seeds of revolution. They challenge the reader to think, not conform. Above all, they provide a language with which to argue about our most fundamental commitments. They are not a museum. They are a mirror. We abandon them at our peril. Abandon them we have. Across the political spectrum, American institutions that once embodied liberal-democratic principles—free expression, civic dialogue, individual dignity—are faltering. Those on right and left alike have allowed tribal loyalty to replace enduring values. On the right, the collapse of principle is breathtaking. Media outlets that once extolled restraint, constitutional fidelity, and the rule of law now amplify conspiracies, attack judicial oversight, and vilify democratic processes. Public figures who built their platforms defending free speech and open discourse fall silent—or worse, become active participants—when those norms are threatened by ideological allies On the left, media and advocacy organizations have become tangled in internal battles over ideological purity. Universities face protest and paralysis. Newsrooms fracture over publishing controversial views. And while some institutions are beginning to course-correct in the face of renewed threats to democracy, early timidity helped entrench the climate of distrust we face. The result? Principle is subordinate to tribe. How, then, do we rebuild a civil society rooted not in identity or grievance, but in shared foundations? We must return to first principles. And we must teach them—intentionally, seriously, and in community. This is what the Great Books make possible. Rousseau wrote that "the citizen's first education is in the principles of the state." Jefferson insisted that liberty could not survive without an educated citizenry. Hannah Arendt argued that education exists to prepare the young for a world they did not choose—and to prepare that world for the new words and deeds by which the young will inevitably reshape that world. But we have grown negligent in this task. Our educational systems train students in technical skills or, a layer deeper, in analysis and argument, but rarely in first principles. Students learn to critique power, but not to understand and justify its proper uses. They are taught to question traditions, but not to distinguish between just and unjust ones. They graduate full of opinions, but without the habits of judgment, patience, and intellectual humility that democracy requires. The result is not just fragility. It is fanaticism. When students are not taught how to think with seriousness and care about justice, freedom, and truth, they will seek substitutes. And when our institutions no longer serve as shared spaces for reasoned disagreement, their authority collapses—often into cynicism or radicalism. If we are serious about rebuilding civil society, we need an education that forms citizens, not just professionals. That values the building of a meaningful life over a financially lucrative one. That welcomes disagreement. That prizes clarity over conformity. That insists on the difference between persuasion and performance and between persuasion and coercion. That teaches students to listen before they speak—and to speak with care, not certainty. That forms hard-won independence of mind, not the cheap validation of groupthink. This is not a luxury. It is a necessity. For all our political reforms and cultural reckonings, none will take root unless we rebuild the moral and intellectual architecture on which they depend. And that means looking not just at our institutions—but at the people who will inherit and shape them. And it also means looking in the mirror. Those on the right must acknowledge that their embrace of grievance politics and tribal loyalty has jeopardized the very constitutional and civic norms they once claimed to defend. Those on the left must recognize that their moralistic zeal and narrowing of intellectual discourse have turned educational and cultural institutions into engines of alienation, not trust. Both have been part of the problem. Both must reform. The Great Books can help with that, too. Because the most important conversations they prompt are not with our adversaries—but with ourselves. A civil society is not a spontaneous achievement. It is something taught and transmitted, practiced and defended—starting with first principles, which are the life blood of Great Books. J. Walter Sterling became the eighth president of St. John's College, Santa Fe in July 2024. He has been a member of the teaching faculty since 2003 and served nine years as dean of the college. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Miami Herald
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Prince William, Kate Middleton celebrate Princess Charlotte's birthday. See photo
Another year, another birthday portrait for Princess Charlotte — who turned 10 May 2. In following tradition, Prince William and Kate Middleton are sharing a new photo of the young princess, a photo captured by Middleton. The photo shows Charlotte sporting a big smile, while wearing camo sitting atop a grassy hill. 'Happy 10th Birthday Princess Charlotte!' the parents captioned the post. 'What a beautiful child, so like her dad,' one commenter suggested, and many more agreed. 'Happy Birthday Princess Charlotte! Looks just like her father.' Charlotte, the second child and only daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, was born at 8:34 a.m. on May 2, 2015 at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, according to The Royal Family. She's currently third in line to the British throne behind her father and brother, Prince George, who turns 12 in July. Her full name, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, honors both her grandmother, Princess Diana, who died in 1997, and great-grandmother, former Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022. William and Kate also share a second son, Prince Louis, who recently turned 7 years old on April 23. Charlotte, much like her brothers, has grown up right before everyone's eyes — starting with the first photo William and Kate ever shared after she was born. Take a look back at what William and Kate have said about their only daughter. Charlotte is 'cute' with a 'feisty side,' mom said Prince William and Kate aren't shy when discussing their children's growing personalities. In July 2015, just a few months after Charlotte was born, William spoke with reporters as he prepared for his first day of work as an air ambulance pilot. The then-father-of-two described his daughter as 'a little joy from heaven,' but added that 'it's a lot more responsibility, looking after two little ones,' per Us Weekly. Several months later, while speaking at St. John's College at Cambridge University, William described his daughter as 'very lady-like,' per Hello! magazine. The following year, William opened up about what it's like raising a daughter after not growing up with a sister. 'I adore my children very much and I've learned a lot about myself and about family just from having my own children,' he said in a 2016 interview with 'Talk Vietnam,' per ABC News. 'And Charlotte, bearing in mind I haven't had a sister so having a daughter is a very different dynamic,' he added. 'So I'm learning about having a daughter, having a girl in the family.' As for Kate, she has described her daughter as 'cute' but 'feisty.' 'Oh, she is very cute but she has got quite a feisty side!' Kate said at a lunch celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday in 2016, per People. In 2020, William was looking at a photo of him as a baby when he made a discovery. During a visit to Bradford, William and Kate met a baker who used frosted baby photos of the royals as decoration on a cupcake. 'Is that me?' William asked the baker, per MSN. 'Doesn't it look like Charlotte? Doesn't it look like Charlotte? Is that me? Oh, my goodness. Is that me?' More recently, Us Weekly spoke to royal commentator Amanda Matta about the royal family and what Kate and William's kids are like behind closed doors. 'She's reportedly bright and diligent, and she's said to be multilingual with a particular interest in Spanish,' Matta said of Charlotte, who goes by Charlotte Cambridge in school. According to Matta, Charlotte loves Taylor Swift, watching movies (especially 'Toy Story'), gymnastics, sports like tennis and archery, anything adventurous, baking and dancing. Other royal insiders described Charlotte as the 'boss of the family,' per Us Weekly. A look back at Charlotte's annual birthday portraits As is tradition with Kate and William, every year they release a new portrait of their kids on their birthday. It's something they do with all three of their children and helps give their followers an ongoing look at how much they've grown over the years. In 2016, the royal couple released their first birthday portrait of Charlotte. The collage included four photos from their daughter's first year — including a photo of them staring into her eyes outside the hospital moments after she was born. One year later, they shared a photo of Charlotte on her second birthday. In the photo, Charlotte is wearing a yellow button-up sweater. 'The photograph was taken in April by The Duchess at their home in Norfolk,' the couple wrote in the caption. In 2018, William and Kate turned it up a notch with two photos marking their daughter's third birthday. The first photo shows Charlotte sitting on a stone stairway wearing a red jacket and a pink scarf. The second photo, which was shared several days later, shows Charlotte holding her younger brother Louis — who was just one week old — as she gives him a kiss on the forehead. According to the caption, the image was taken by Kate at Kensington Palace. The tradition continued in 2019 — this time with three photos to commemorate Charlotte's fourth birthday. The photos were taken by Kate — as they usually are — at the family's home in Norfolk and at Kensington Palace. Two of the photos show Charlotte wearing a gray sweater and a plaid skirt with blue leggings. She's sitting on a wooden fence in one of the photos and running with a flower in her hand in the other photo. In the third photo, Charlotte is wearing a blue floral dress and blue slip-on sneakers while sitting on the grass with her hands crossed over her knees. In 2020, Charlotte's resemblance to late Queen Elizabeth II became apparent as she gazed into the camera for her fifth birthday. 'The images were taken by The Duchess as the family helped to pack up and deliver food packages for isolated pensioners in the local area,' Kate and William wrote in the caption. Charlotte brought back the floral-patterned dress — this time a dark blue with pink accents — for her sixth annual birthday portrait in 2021. By the time Charlotte turned 7, she was already starting to take after her mother — and it showed with her wardrobe choice in her birthday portrait. Charlotte was dressed in a pair of pants and light blue sweater. For 2023's annual birthday portrait, Charlotte sported a white floral dress while showing off her smile — which was missing a few front teeth. The image was taken by Kate and shared May 1, one day before Charlotte's eighth birthday. That brings us to last year's birthday portrait, which showed Charlotte leaning up against a wall of flowers while wearing a jean skirt, a blue sweater and a red button-up sweater jacket. The flowers she was next to were Clematis Elizabeth — one of the first flowers to be named after Queen Elizabeth II. They start to bloom in June, just in time for Charlotte's birthday.
