Mr. Richardson, my 11th grade Civics teacher, once said to my class, "If you learn nothing else in this year, learn this. Understanding this will serve you well in life."

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. (An observation that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. The statement was made by Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.)

I have learned all too well that Mr. Richardson was right on track.