Reflections on Independence Day

July 4th has always been a day for me to play and to celebrate. Fireworks, picnics, trips to the beach (even with beach traffic), parades, sports events, patriotic speeches and music--can it get any better? This year though I found myself a little more serious and reflective. With the all the challenges facing us now as a nation I have to wonder how our forefathers and mothers must have felt listening to the Declaration of Independence being read for the first time. They had to know they had a difficult and uncertain path ahead of them. Where did they get the conviction that they were on the right path? Where did they get the courage and fortitude to act on their convictions?

Today we face serious, challenging, unprecedented and frightening problems but even more serious, challenging, unprecedented and frightening are the solutions we are considering to these problems. Did you ever think you would see the day when Americans would be advocating socialism as a solution to anything?? Do any of us even know or understand the "self evident" truths that our ancestors fought for so long ago? If we do, then do we believe they are still relevant and worth fighting for?

This Independence Day felt different to me this year because I truly believe more than ever before that we are at a crossroads in our history just as we were at a similar crossroads 233 years ago. Choosing the next best path will take the same passion, courage and conviction that drove our ancestors to declare independence. It will take a living, breathing, working relationship with the concepts and values reflected in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We will need a love of freedom deep within us on a cellular level. We will have to be willing to give our lives to a cause much larger than ourselves, that of preserving freedom and liberty for generations to come. We will need to know what we stand for and be willing to stand for it no matter what the cost. Above all we need to "get" that our rights and freedoms are now in grave danger and that it is up to us to defend them if we want to preserve them. Thomas Jefferson once said that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." This has never been more true than now. Do we have it within us to stand eternally vigilant? I pray to God we do!