Let Freedom Ring

The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves. George Washington

This week's Fourth of July celebration marks the 238th anniversary of our country, born when the Founding Fathers signed their name to an incredible document drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

The Rights of Man were in full bloom back in 1776, and one can only wonder whether Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and the others would even recognize the United States of today.

From the political left and right, those who would deny rights and freedoms to the others are working noisily away, hoping to strip us of our liberties in the name of security, morality or sheer profit.

When America was founded, there were no laws regarding firearm ownership, abortion or the use of recreational drugs. There was no income tax, no welfare state and no thought of fighting wars in faraway lands to pursue of goals most people couldn't understand.

What has happened to our country? What is happening to it?

The party of the left, the Democrats, seeks to undermine liberty in their vision of the nanny state, a place where individuals are protected from anything bad happening to them by government enforced safety precautions that would protect us from ourselves.

At the same time, the party of the right – the Republicans – would continue to criminalize personal life choices in matters sexual and otherwise, often based on parochial readings and interpretations of the Christian Bible.

While the Democrats want the government in our kitchens making sure we eat healthy foods, the Republicans want government in our bedrooms making sure we're sleeping and not up to anything else.

You can't help but wonder whatever happened to the live and let live, mind your own business philosophies that our forefathers envisioned when they gave birth to our country.

The fireworks you'll hear are meant to remind us of the gunfire that erupted when free men, untrained and unorganized, faced down what was then the mightiest military in the world and spilled their blood to give us the freedom we know today.

In the future America envisioned by some, those brave men wouldn't have had the weapons with which to fight.