Freedom on the Fourth of July

If you have not read the Declaration of Independence, I recommend it.

The Declaration of Independence

We've read it in class several times, now. We talk about what it means. And despite my kids' limited interest and, more often than not, limited developed reading and academic abilities, I hope they recognize, at least someday, the courage that it took for a rag-tag bunch of colonials to take on the most powerful government and military in the world, to assert their right to govern themselves and their own lives.

Freedom is a precious thing. Even as we all take it for granted and romanticize power and countries and cultures that don't have the kind of freedom we enjoy in America. It is fundamental to everything we have and are, today. Even as we behave like it is responsible for all of our bad behavior and our misery. What freedom offers us, better, is the honest opportunity for us to be responsible for ourselves and our own behavior, good and bad. Even as we, like all peoples since the beginning of time, would often prefer to shirk such responsibility.

Independence. Of thought and conscience. Of expression and action. The freedom to govern ourselves and the direction of our lives.

That is what I celebrate today. And the first nation on earth to be conceived on the principles of freedom and democracy.

Ours' is a nation nor a people conceived in perfection, or on claims to that mantle. Ours' is a nation conceived on the premise of independence and self-governance, and the ability to improve with that commitment over time.

This is a day to reflect on those principles and to reflect on the liberal democratic values that make possible everything that we cherish, even as we persistently take them and their fruits for granted.

Today should be a day to remember that freedom is not something to be afraid of or treated as an afterthought. Freedom is fundamental to virtually everything good that free peoples lay claim to.

Today is a day to embrace that.