JS Tip 535: Celebrating Yesterday

This is a personal note. Please forgive me for that.

Yesterday was the Fourth of July:

Fireworks
Picnics
Furniture sales

Those are good, but . . .

Heritage
Values
Principles

On a long-ago Fourth of July, I was in Saudi Arabia. 

The day was not a holiday in that country, but I made my way to a library. I searched for and found a copy of the Declaration of Independence. 

I stood in the library stacks and read: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The principles matter. The principles are sacred. 

Carl Schurz, German immigrant, American statesman, and Union general, wisely said, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

We are the people. We engage. We participate. We are the city on a hill, the land of opportunity, the last best hope of earth. 

God bless the United States of America.