7-4-02, Dalton Roberts, Reflections
Fourth of July Remembrances
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
Let
me share a few thoughts on my own personal Fourth of July remembrance.
Today
I took a "freedom walk" down by Chickamauga Lake to think about and
thank those brave men and women who gave us the freedom we enjoy in this great
country.
I
like to walk by the lake and feed the ducks and watch the boats come and go.
There are people fishing and swimming and families gathered under pavilions for
picnics. It's a beautiful place and a good place for good thoughts.
Strangely,
it was 1941 before Congress set aside July 4th as a national holiday. We spend
it in celebration and with fireworks but it would do us good to take part of the
day to pause, be still, and think of where and how we got our freedom. I decided
that's what I wanted to do today.
As
Dave Cochran said in his fine essay today, "The Declaration of Independence
was written in ink, but what made the ink stick to the paper was the blood of
men and women who gave their lives to the protection of the ideas expressed in
that document."
Many
of those who came together to write the Declaration had lived in countries with
an "official" religion. Meaning, a religion everyone was taxed to
support, regardless of their beliefs or unbelief. So they protected us from
governmental dictation about religion by adding a constitutional provision about
making no laws respecting religion. When we see how government marriage to
religion can play out in the Taliban, I bow my head in gratitude for that
provision. I have no doubt that life in this nation would be just as repressive
under a Falwell or a Robertson.
I
am a Christian but I have no problem accepting people of other faiths or no
faith as fellow Americans. I cannot get excited over anything where government
is asked to inject religion into our lives. I can get excited over us having the
right to choose our religion or having no religion at all. In fact, the very
reason churches have grown and prospered in this land is because government has
kept its nose out of the tent.
So
I pause today to say a heartfelt thanks to those who wrote these founding
documents and backed them up with their own blood. And for every man and woman
who has died to keep them alive.
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