To me and most likely many other citizens of the US, July 4 is the holiday which represents Freedom more completely than any other. Two hundred years ago we fought a bloody and vicious conflict against our former rulers to earn our political and economic freedom. Today we are engaged in another conflict, not yet equally bloody but surely every bit as vicious, with the aim of stopping terrorism in the world as we know it.
It is my deepest hope that we do not foresake our own ideals of freedom in the process. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. We must ensure that this vigilance, and the liberty which results from it, is pursued with an equal measure of justice, or we shall find ourselves cutting one head from the Hydra just to see ten more spring up in its place.
May this nation under God remember the ideals of our founding fathers while we engage in our worldwide struggle against terror, or else I fear that we shall reap the harvest which we sow.