July 4, 2008

Sometimes I wonder how we’ve lasted so long. Two hundred thirty-three years.

I think it is largely because America has always been an idea in search of the ideal. We celebrate today not wealth or land mass, but liberty. Liberty is a rare concept in an increasingly totalitarian world. Most of the world is in bondage under secular and religious dictators for whom liberty is a threat to their position and perks.

I worry about the future of our country, though, because so many today have forgotten or disrespect our heritage and are failing to teach it to the next generation.

But on this July 4th as on all the others, we honor our Founders and all those who preserved in blood and treasure what they established: a nation that has become the greatest on earth not because of wealth or military power, but because of the liberty and justice it guarantees for all. If we want to keep it, we can’t take it for granted, but must preserve it for ourselves and our posterity. Happy birthday, America.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.