excellent article.
We need a lot more of this sort of historical context injected into the debate (and for that matter, into ALL our debates!)
Exactly! I used to play that speech by Socrates as read by Moses Hadas in the history classroom. However, it always brought tears to my eyes and high school sophomores really thought that was corny. So I stopped doing it. It is in the Crito, by Plato, if youi want an inspiration.