That idea, that concept was, and is, freedom. Individual freedom. It wasn’t perfect then, it isn’t perfect now. One had to fight for it then, one has to really fight for it now. That is, if one believes in it.

The problems we presently confront are immense and constantly growing, encroaching government on every level and scale. From city to state to federal, those in government want ever larger and more expansive pieces of everyone’s lives. From local public transportation to Patriot Act initiatives, control of individual lives through government continually grows. It appears endless.

So it is easy to make a mistake and get lost in all the hoopla. The upcoming day is about an idea that repudiates all that as well, if we only keep it in mind. It seemed just as hopeless in the face of the Crown in the day of King George. Yet it is never hopeless if we keep certain ideas in mind.

We are all born free. Our rights aren’t given to us by government, aren’t guaranteed to us by a Constitution. but are conferred upon us upon our birth by the fact of our existence. It is up to us to remember this fact, that upon our birth, it is our natural right to be free. That is what we fight for and believe in.

However, the price of that freedom is eternal vigilance, and that maxim was never truer than today. Every generation has had to fight for its freedom anew, and that statement was never truer than now. Individual freedom is under attack in earnest and that is something we, as a people, had better come to realize, and very soon.

Thus, as we come to celebrate the birth of this nation and what it stands for, we also need to come to realize what that celebration really stands for. This Fourth of July, a celebration of the birth of this nation, needs to be lauded as the birth of individual freedom, and the dedication to the ongoing fight to preserve it, before we lose it altogether.

This is the importance of the day, not all the ways it is under attack, from within and without, but a remembrance of the ideal. Not the glory of the fireworks but a reaffirmation of the concept of individual freedom, and the responsibility that goes with it, that gave rise to a great and inconceivable nation.

There aren’t many times that a nation is at a crossroads but this nation appears to stand at one now. How we celebrate this Fourth of July may well determine which path we take as a nation. Are we really as dedicated to individual freedom as our Founders were? The future of this nation may well be determined by how many citizens ask themselves that question this weekend.

Don Newman, senior policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Hawaii's first and only free market public policy institute focused on individual freedom and liberty, can be reached at: mailto:newmand001@hawaii.rr.com

This editorial is intended to provoke thought, discussion and an examination of issues. It does not reflect official policy of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. See the GRIH Web site at: http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/

HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com

Offshoots

MOORE’S FAHRENHEIT 9/11 IS HALF-BAKED

Daily Policy Digest

GOVERNMENT ISSUES

Thursday, July 01, 2004

In his new movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” director Michael Moore has taken the low road in his portrayal of the tragic events of September 11th and the war on terror, says journalist Christopher Hitchens.

As a documentary, Hitchens asserts, the film is unskilled in making a consistent and coherent point, instead receding into an exercise of attacking the Bush administration and the coalition that struck Iraq. It is weighed down by self-contradictions such as asserting Saudi Arabia runs U.S. policy and then showing it does not; criticizing the United States for sending too many troops and then suggesting there were too few; and complaining there is too little homeland security, then ridiculing instances where there is too much.

Aside from failing to take a stance on this very serious matter, Moore also uses deception to attack President Bush. By leaving out certain widely-acknowledged facts, the film attempts to galvanize less critical audiences. Some of the more noteworthy details left out of the movie include:

The 9/11 commission concluded there was nothing improper about arranging flights out of the country for Bin Laden family members after the terrorist strikes. Richard Clarke, Bush’s former chief of counterterrorism and oft-cited Bush critic, has admitted that he and he alone took responsibility for authorizing the Saudi departures. Saddam was responsible for violence against Americans by his financial sponsorship of suicide bombers in Israel who have killed many Americans there, he sponsored the attempted murder of former President Bush, and daily, for 10 years, attacked American aircraft patrolling the country’s no-fly zones. Moore also characterizes Iraq under Saddam as a peaceable kingdom -- children are flying kites and shoppers smiling in the sunshine -- before being struck by weapons of American imperialism. Instead of identifying the Saddam palaces and military installations as the targets of bombing, Moore suggests civilians are its primary targets.

Source: Christopher Hitchens, “Unfairenheit 9/11: The Lies of Michael Moore,” slate.msn.com, June 21, 2004.

For text http://slate.msn.com/toolbar.aspx?action+print&id=2102723

For more on Terrorism http://www.ncpa.org/iss/ter/

Sprout of the Day

"Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance."

-Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE 1:376

Grassroot Perspective...