Some Thoughts on Freedom, 7/4/2012

As I write this my country's 236th birthday is coming to a close. We had family and friends over to our home today to celebrate and spend time together. I put up our flag early this morning and was gratified as I looked up and down our street to see several U.S. flags waving in the breeze. It has been a good day.

And, yes, I'm a patriot. Maybe patriotism has lost some of its appeal, and maybe some people think it's corny to get a little teary eyed when the flag passes by or when a group of school children sing "The Star Spangled Banner." Maybe words like liberty and freedom and justice don't stir people the way they used to. But I still thrill to those things because those words still mean something to me. And I believe that aren't exclusively American.

Those men who nailed it all down for us back there in the beginning were expressing a vision that extended to all people everywhere. The patriotic pride I feel in being an American and in my country comes from my belief that our nation is the Olympus of liberty, the keeper of the flame of freedom for all people.

So, when I fly the flag on special holidays like today, or when I sometimes run it up just for the joy of seeing it against the blue sky, I'm saying more than "God bless America." I'm saying, "God bless all people everywhere who love the idea freedom and the principles that my country was founded on."

I remember Moses' great words, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." And I'm remembering those people throughout my life, and those who came before me, who made it all possible in this blessed land of liberty and freedom.

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July today and that you took a minute or two to express thanks for the blessings of freedom.