Davis: Remember what we are celebrating

July 4, the Independence Day of the U.S., represents many things.

link Clyde Davis

It is the day on which many beaches in the North Atlantic really get rolling with the tourist trade, since it takes the water that long to actually get warm enough for swimming.

It is the day when towns, small and large, gather for fireworks and picnics. It is the day when children look forward to setting off their own fireworks, after the big show is over. It is the day when many people take their dogs to those firework displays, and wonder why the dog doesn't enjoy being exposed to food he is not allowed to eat, and loud bangs that reverb inside his delicate ears.

But what is independence? Have we, as a nation, forgotten the excesses on the part of Britain which led to that declaration; have we forgotten the Constitution which was written to be seen as a continuous whole with that Declaration? Have we forgotten that, in our own area of the country, the Spanish settlers had to throw off the domination of their own European overlord?

There is a real concept that, when we forget history, we are in danger of repeating it; there is a real possibility that, as we have seen in other countries in the 20th century alone, and even in the 21st — any republic or democracy is only one generation away from tyranny. A few bad moves, a failure to pay heed, and we find ourselves in 1920's Russia, 1930's Germany.

Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and assembly, the right to bear arms, the right to a fair and impartial trial. These were, if one goes back and reads the rather short document known as the Declaration, key issues which caused the colonists to make their move, and which were safeguarded in the subsequent document we know as the Constitution. There are, of course, others, but this column has only so much space.

Freedom of religion — whenever we find ourselves laughing at some totally bizarre but harmless cult, we have to remember the value of the principle.

I am guaranteed the right to practice any religion, or no religion. At stake is the human right to follow my own conscience, not subscribe to a doctrine because a government says I must. We do not live in an Islamic state, with state mandated beliefs.

Freedom of the press — and one might conjecture, of media in general. We know that news is unavoidably slanted, even though it tries not to be — but the sacred right of journalists to give us the unimpeded truth is best understood when we remember that, in a totalitarian government, all news is censored; all news is propaganda.

Freedom of speech and assembly — one has only to look at what occurs in some countries of the world, some of the excesses that are committed in the name of public interest — to see the importance of why and how this matters. You cannot imprison the mind or the spirit — but if you silence that mind or spirit from sharing and speaking, all it can do is wait for freedom.

The right to bear arms — this can be a delicate issue, since gun violence is daily in the news. In the view of this columnist, the criminals will acquire firearms whether they are legal or not. The pattern in country after country, where totalitarian governments gain a foothold, has been to take the firearms of the citizens, under varied and sundry pretenses, so that, when the time came to take over, there could be no armed resistance.

As we celebrate this weekend, recover from our rejoicing, let's remember, and reinforce, the reasons why we rejoice. Let's not sell out future generations with our complacency.

Clyde Davis is a Presbyterian pastor and teacher at Clovis High School. He can be contacted at:

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