This weekend we celebrated our country's birthday, a mid-summer holiday filled for many with lake and river outings, swimming and cookouts, time with family and friends and fireworks displays. Along with your weekend activities you might even have reflected on what the Fourth of July means, on the freedoms we enjoy and on the sacrifices so many have made to sustain our country for the past 234 years.
The Declaration of Independence, penned in large measure by the young Thomas Jefferson, began with the following words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." As a nation with a remarkable history, indeed a unique one among nations, we have truly been blessed.
Yet how often do we take this legacy that is ours for granted, caught up as we are in the daily challenges, wants and needs of our lives. Our standard of living is one of the highest in the world and opportunities in the United States abound. Many people from around the world seek out our universities for the excellent programs they offer. And our country would rank high when the "gate test" is applied. If the gates to our borders were opened for anyone to come or go, would people run in or run out? Our immigration issues today make it clear that many would run in.
Over the years our citizens have worked hard to build this country. They have sacrificed, saved and served; they have been resourceful, productive and innovative. They have forged creative edges in business and social enterprises, in education and the arts, in technology and in modeling a progressive democracy.
As a quiet and often understated patriot, I once did my small part as an officer in the military on "freedom's frontier" and still fly my American flag proudly outside my cabin on the river. Young men and women in the uniformed services are out there now on what we perceive as today's freedom's frontier.
Yes, our Independence Day observances mean more than the hamburgers and brats we consume and the lake outings we enjoy. Our founders established a framework for hopes and dreams that have come to fruition and been largely fulfilled.
But even as we celebrate all that we have done and become since our independence was declared, new threats and challenges are ever with us, sometimes seemingly more intractable than ever. The liberal dynamic implicit in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" pushes us to assure these qualities for everyone, sometimes even as a right more than an opportunity.
Our free enterprise, capitalistic system has served to allocate resources efficiently and undergirded a high standard of living overall. Yet perceived corporate excess and greed have sometimes taken a heavy toll on those they employ and the environment in which they operate. These problems extend to the financial institutions which grease the gears of the American economy. And our political system, not foreign to rancorous policy debate, has become so intensely partisan that the process seems to proceed as an ugly ad hominem end in itself rather than a means to effective solutions to our public policy needs.
At the base of these challenges and the solutions to them are you and me and all of us. We have too often wanted to do everything when we should have focused on more specific "anythings." We have wanted to live large on leveraged credit and saved too little. We have mouthed concerns for the environment and less frequently put our money and commitment where our mouth is. We have fed the ugly partisanship that infects our political processes. The old Pogo Possum cartoon had it about right: "We have met the enemy and the enemy is us."
I believe in building on strengths and on this Fourth of July we have so many and so much to be thankful for. As a nation we have indeed been blessed. We have the legacy, the ability, the resources, indeed the possibility to make America's next century even better than before. We can have it for breakfast in the morning if we want it.
We work here on one little corner of the challenge, that of helping to keep our rivers and lakes clean for generations to follow. Will you do your part in your corner, where you live and work and make your life and living? If we would all do that it would assure that our Independence Day observances in years to come will be truly celebratory of our continuing remarkable and unique story.
