The Fourth Of July

I cannot remember a Fourth of July weekend quite like this one, when our first emotion was simply a feeling of relief that nothing terrible happened.

We had more than hot dogs and baseball to think about this time. Our place in the world has been secure for so long that we sometimes have taken our freedom for granted, but no more.

The metal detectors that went up around the symbols of freedom in Washington, and the ongoing hassles that increased security in our all public places has brought, reminded us just how fragile freedom really is and, sadly, that there are still those who would take it from us.

But as it has always been, this crisis, like those before it, has given us new reason to appreciate the remarkable achievement of that summer of 1776.

If we are apprehensive this weekend, think how those who signed the Declaration of Independence must have felt that weekend.

It all seems so logical now, so natural in the course of events, but they had no idea how what they started would end, only that the odds were greatly against them and that, if they lost, they would hang. And yet they went ahead, because they loved freedom enough to risk their lives and all they had in its pursuit.

On the Fourth of July, we celebrate their genius and what it wrought. But on this weekend, we are reminded to appreciate first their courage, which made all the rest of it possible.