Why bother with the Fourth of July?

Article content





What happened in America did not stay in America. The example of freedom inspired other peoples in other lands. There was no question then that the United States was “exceptional”, however much the smug elites of today -- including President Barack Obama -- try to dismiss the idea.

Because self-government on such a large scale was a unique experiment, the founders of the American republic were very much aware it had its dangers.


Abraham Lincoln expressed his fervent hope that, “government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth”.

The survival of freedom was not something he took for granted.

Today, too many Americans take freedom for granted, as just another entitlement, something that does not require them to take personal responsibility.

Just last week, a U.S. Attorney threatened prosecution of anyone who made “inflammatory” statements about Muslim boys accused of raping a five-year-old girl.

Surely that Justice Department official knew the courts were not likely to violate people’s right to free speech.

But the real threat was to drag people through expensive and time-consuming legal processes.

Such high-handed use of government powers has become increasingly common during the Obama administration. But an apathetic, uninformed public voted him a second term.

That is not the “eternal vigilance” required to preserve freedom. It is widespread apathy and gullibility which accepts the coming of tyranny on the instalment plan.

Earlier generations of Americans fought and died to preserve freedom.

Today’s generation cannot spare time from their selfies and twitter to think about such things.

A generation that owes so much to the past acts as if it owes nothing to anybody. Its idea of freedom is exemption from laws or obligations.


But anarchy does not mean freedom. It means people “become the slaves of ruffians”.


The orgy of anti-police rhetoric in the wake of riots in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore has already been followed by a sudden surge in violence, including murders, as police pull back or get pulled back.


Freedom is not free. It requires, at maturity and a sense of the realities of life.

No society of human beings has ever been perfect.



-- Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His website is



Article content

Latest National Stories


Story continues below

This Week in Flyers