News : A United Country  [7/4/2009]
(www.gwinnettdailypost.com)-Today, July 4, the American people will band together in celebration. Today, citizens will come together at cookouts, parties and parades to celebrate their freedom and to remember why they love the United States so passionately.

Today, plays and shows will reenact famous quotes and scenes from the signing of the Declaration of Independence 233 years ago and children will dress up as their colonial ancestors who saved future generations from monarchy and oppression. On this day, all men are equal as the flag's stars and stripes give the same promise of freedom and hope to all men. On July 4, the United States of America does not contain a mere 50 states, but more than 300 million people united under a common liberty.

I wonder, though, if the pride felt on this day has led us to believe that only on this day can we rise up for America; perhaps the need for celebration on this one summer day has taken precedence over the need for unity the rest of the year. Thomas Jefferson believed in the power of the everyday citizen and pressed "that government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part."

Each citizen of this great nation represents a part of a whole, a piece of the government and a member of a free society. The Declaration of Independence, the great document whose creation we celebrate this day, made known that the governed alone can create, run and give power to new government. The governed alone can come together and make known the interests of the nation as a whole.

In his farewell address to the nation after two presidential terms in office, George Washington issued a warning to the nation: "However (political parties) may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

These divisions have indeed become "potent engines" over time but have also come to represent both the nature of American politics and the embodiment of freedom of speech. These political separations allow for an even stronger checks and balances system than the one originally devised by the founders of this great nation.

Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that our parties do not define us as individuals or as Americans. Labels plague the public as people forget that the leaders they curse and the neighbors they scorn share with them the same history and adoration for a free America. Though we may not always agree, we can work together to better the nation by respecting and challenging one another. We have the freedom to speak freely, but also to listen carefully - to our friends and our opponents.

Benjamin Franklin believed that "where liberty dwells, there is my country" - a quote that represents the link bonding all citizens, a link that cannot be cut away by labels and can only be strengthened by understanding.

Even with our political factions, we tend to remember on our day of Independence that we are all Americans. I applaud the nation for putting aside differences on this day to remember the valiant efforts of great men and women from our past, but I ask this: can we preserve these feelings of equality, unity, and respect? Can we not let these bonds hold strong through tomorrow, through next July, through all of time? As long as America holds true, so too does liberty. Celebrate this day, our freedoms, our unity, and our history. Celebrate and remember.