AMERICA'S PEOPLE MUST TREASURE THEIR FREEDOM

Americans celebrate their unique and special heritage today, extolling independence as a national birthright and holding dear (at least for a brief holiday consideration) the distinct endowment citizenship here affords them. The Fourth of July should renew in each of us a feeling of investment in the United States, a revived belief that any nation giving power to its people is capable of grand things.

What makes the United States so special? Asking Americans will get you a variety of answers, but responses of more significance might come from people dying literally, in some cases to get to these shores. Ask those Mexicans who defy border guards and make their way through fences along America's southern boundary in order to enjoy the freedoms and opportunity of their neighbors to the north. Ask those Haitians who crowd unseaworthy boats for a dangerous passage to Florida. Ask those Chinese who recently turned up along the New York coast, having bought their way onto a risky ship for a chance to enter this nation, albeit illegally.

Where freedom is concerned, ask also those people of Iraq, who live in fear that the caprice and tyranny of their leader will bring bombs of international retaliation. Ask the people of Somalia, where feuding warlords made malnourished pawns of most of the population, about their notion of American-style freedom; it is a dream to them. And individual liberties must also seem unattainable in what formerly was Yugoslavia, where freedom in the face of tragic civil strife must merely be a day when you aren't fired upon.

Would any of these people like a taste of American freedom? You bet they would. Do you hear of Americans flocking to the borders of other nations, either fleeing political persecution or seeking financial opportunity? Very seldom.

The United States, whose independence was declared 217 years ago today, has its share of problems: its national budget is something of a mess, its economic health is being restored more slowly than desired, its social values have slid into an uncomfortable descent and its people remain ill at ease with those who represent them in government.

For all these difficulties, however, America has a fundamental tool that enables its betterment ... freedom, the very thing authors of the Declaration of Independence had in mind in 1776. Strength and resourcefulness of an independent citizenry have allowed the United States to become the great nation it is. We celebrate this today.