World Watch Focus: What Exactly Are We Celebrating?

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     The Independence Day celebrations of 4 July 2006 represent 230 years since the Founding Fathers issued their famous edict separating the American colonies from their British rulers. Yet today, one must ask the question what exactly are Americans celebrating on this day their independence was declared.

     Most Americans will likely answer that question with words like ‘Liberty’ and ‘Democracy’, and rhetorically, those answers are correct. Unfortunately, many Americans fail to understand why those answers are correct, because they fail to understand what Liberty and Democracy really mean to them.

     The truth is that America’s Independence Day celebrates a concept so unique that even those living in a nation governed by that concept have difficulty grasping what it means. The truth is that America’s Independence Day celebrates the establishment of a nation governed not by tyrants or oligarchs, but by its own citizenry.

     Consider that, in the end, every part of America’s governance is controlled- at least in principle- by the will of the citizens of America. Citizens form political parties. Citizens nominate other citizens as candidates for representative office. Citizens vote those candidates into office. Citizens petition those representatives with their will on subjects of interest to them. Citizens replace representatives that do not reflect their will through the democratic process.

     The government of the United States of American is a government of, by, and for its people, whether its people choose to participate in that government or not. It is that government that American celebrates on Independence Day. In short, on Independence Day, Americans celebrate themselves and the nation they have built over the past 230 years by the Grace of God and the determination of a people that is truly free.

     Unfortunately, many Americans fail to understand that they are their own government in the simple fact that they are citizens. Many Americans regularly abdicate their innate and inalienable right to participate in the process of governance to others, convincing themselves that their opinion does not matter or count. Many Americans have begun to believe that they are governed, not by their fellow citizens, but by political parties and politicians whose will they must simply endure.

     In that endurance, those Americans have begun to cede their government of, by, and for the people to a government of, by, and for those who choose to participate. In doing so, they risk the very Liberty and Democracy that they claim to celebrate in Independence Day. When the citizens fail to rule themselves, who will come to rule over them?

     While this state of affairs may exist, it does not represent the end, merely a step along a path that can yet be reversed. There is still time for Americans to realize the true meanings of Liberty and Democracy and to participate in governing themselves. In fact, 2 November 2006, the next General Election in the United States, represents another chance for Americans to participate in their government and let their voices be heard.

     Liberty and Democracy are celebrated by the actions of citizens that exercise those fundamental rights. Americans who vote, belong to political parties, who run for office when needed, who write their representatives to let their will be known act to secure those rights for future generations of Americans, giving them a chance to celebrate the same Independence celebrated today.

     In the end, then, the celebration of Independence Day is not just a chance to remember Liberty and Democracy, but to encourage Americans to use them. Independence Day is a reminder to the citizens of the United States of America that freedom is not free, rather its cost is the participation of its citizens. If those citizens fail to participate, what will there be to celebrate?

DLH

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