Freedom, friends gathered around a backyard pool, barbecue, fireworks, and maybe a beer or two. These are just a few of the images burned into our social conscience surrounding this holiday. Great traditions like these form a quilt of memories that stretch back many years. How many of you tried elusively to write your name in the sky with sparklers?
Are we instilling in ourselves and our children that along with each pound of Freedom that we enjoy in our great country, comes two pounds of responsibility? I hope we are, but fear we are not. What kinds of traditions can we build to communicate that our freedom, and indeed, our country are sustained only by exercising the freedoms we have to participate in self government? Each of us should understand that when "we the people" abdicate our responsibility or act irresponsibly we weaken and endanger the freedoms we've been given.
Are we instilling in ourselves and our children that along with each pound of Freedom that we enjoy in our great country, comes two pounds of responsibility? I hope we are, but fear we are not. What kinds of traditions can we build to communicate that our freedom, and indeed, our country are sustained only by exercising the freedoms we have to participate in self government? Each of us should understand that when "we the people" abdicate our responsibility or act irresponsibly we weaken and endanger the freedoms we've been given.
