Independence Day
On the 250th Birthday
I’ve felt for some time I should write something special today, given the significance of this national holiday. Arriving on the morning of our Nation’s birthday, I find that I have nothing deeply philosophical to say. What I have instead is the thought that simply by sitting here at my desk, in my cool, quiet home, surrounded by books, with unfettered access to the internet at my beck and call… I am free.
My rights are protected — never granted! — and that is codified in the documents the founding fathers drafted from bitter experience and deep wisdom. On this blog, and elsewhere, I say what I like, when I like, without fears the government I helped elect will hunt me down for it. In another room of my home I keep arms, and carry them when necessary. I worship in my own way, without interference from that government. The only soldier ever quartered in my home is my own son, who is serving his country freely and without reservations. Even this is more of a joke by me, because I pay for his keep when he’s here and do my best to stuff him with home cooking before seeing him return from his leave to his service.
I would, if I ever found myself on the accused side of the law, have many rights to a fair trial, a jury of my peers. To protection from searches and property being seized capriciously. Is our criminal justice system perfect? Far from it. However, the foundations are solid when you consider the alternatives. Reform is actually possible, if somewhat unlikely due to the tendencies of bureaucracies everywhere. I’m free to say this, a mild criticism to be sure, and no one is going to pound on my front door demanding I recant. If you review the rights delineated in the Bill of Rights, it should strike you how many of them have to do with the pursuit of justice, and the protections of your rights are afforded there. The Founders knew this was a sticky point for other countries, peoples, and places. They really tried to provide guidance for the newborn America.
Furthermore, the great men understood they couldn’t anticipate everything, so they made room for rights they hadn’t specifically mentioned. That protection for unenumerated rights has helped safeguard rights revealed by changes in technology over the last 250 years. It can protect all manner of things, from interstate travel — commerce is protected, but what about a pleasure trip? Given how arduous travel was at their time, and how small the country was relative to the vast expanses I’ve driven over now? I drove about 2200 miles last week, for business, to see family, and to bring home a little dog. Nothing could stop me. I didn’t need any papers to cross the borders of the states I traveled through on my way. I could change my travel plans on a whim (and did) going where I liked to do what I liked.
I mentioned my cool home above, and as a heat wave has been grabbing headlines recently both here in America and over in Europe - I’m free to cool my home with air conditioning. This isn’t a right, per se, but the practical liberty to use my home as I see fit. There are places where it’s regulated and the people are not given the right to have safe conditions in their own homes. I am very grateful to live where I’m free to keep my house in the condition which suits us who live in it. It’s a bit like choosing to never live under the governance of an HOA — I’m a free American, and I don’t have to submit myself to loss of my God-granted rights. The country I live in protects those rights, it doesn’t grant them to me at birth.
I’m alive.
I’m free.
I’m happy.
This is what those men signed away their lives for, two hundred and fifty years ago. I haven’t forgotten, and I’ve done my best to teach my children to cherish this radical experiment that is still going.
Well said, and a very Happy 250th celebration to you and yours.
Our nation, admittedly far from perfect but, in my opinion, far far better than all the rest.