  urlLink America's Democratic Spirit in Action (Articles) Jim Hightower : "For me, the truest symbol of America's great democratic spirit is not to be found in the formal and imposing edifices of our republic -- the White House, the Capitol building, or the monuments to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and others.
Rather, I look to the much more modest, diverse, dispersed, and welcoming expressions of our nation's egalitarian ideals: our public libraries. Libraries in particular embody the collective story of a place, which makes each library richly unique. Yet, the wonderful uniqueness of each is made more wonderful by a crucial, underlying sameness, which is that they all exist to serve the common good of the community. This is why libraries matter in a way that, say, a Barnes & Noble cannot..." 
