There are many who will gather this Fourth of July under the guise of celebration — barbecues, fireworks, flag-waving. But how many understand — truly understand — what they are celebrating?

In an era where grievance has replaced gratitude, the Fourth of July has become a hollow ritual for some. The danger is not just in forgetting our history but in rewriting it through the narrow lens of modern discontent.

Let us be clear: America was not perfect in 1776. It is not perfect now. But perfection is not the metric of freedom — liberty is. And in declaring independence, those flawed men charted a course toward a society where individuals, not monarchs or mobs, hold the reins of destiny.

There is much handwringing today over America’s Founding Fathers — slaveholders, landowners, men of contradiction. But history does not offer saints; it offers context. And in the context of their age, the radical notion that government should derive its power from the consent of the governed was earth-shattering. That principle — not the imperfections of the men who penned it — is what we celebrate on the Fourth of July.

The alternatives offered by critics of America’s founding are, frankly, unconvincing. Replace merit with quotas, liberty with bureaucracy, individual responsibility with collective guilt — and you get a society that stagnates, not flourishes. What is too often lost in modern discourse is that the freedoms we take for granted — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, due process, equal protection — are still rare commodities in much of the world.

I’ve spent my life examining the consequences of ideas. And few ideas have been as consequential — or beneficial — as the belief that man is born free and that government exists to secure, not bestow, those freedoms. America, despite its sins, has done more to lift the condition of man than any other nation in history.

It is fashionable in elite circles to mock patriotism, to decry the flag as a symbol of oppression rather than emancipation. But tell that to the millions who fled tyranny to reach our shores. Tell that to the Vietnamese boat people, the Cuban refugees, the Soviet dissidents. They risked everything not to criticize America but to join it.

We must not let spoiled intellectuals and political opportunists redefine America as irredeemable. That is not just dishonest — it is dangerous. If we teach our children to hate the foundations of their country, do not be surprised when they tear the whole edifice down, brick by brick.

The Fourth of July is not about a flawless past — it is about the promise of the future. It is a recommitment to the ideals of ordered liberty, limited government and the dignity of the individual. We are not celebrating men; we are celebrating principles.

Liberty is not inherited automatically. It must be understood, defended and passed down. And that begins by refusing to let this holiday become another victim of ideological vandalism.

So this Independence Day, I ask a simple question: Are we a people still worthy of freedom? If the answer is yes, then act like it. Know your history. Teach it. Defend it. And above all, live like liberty means something. Because without vigilance, even the freest nation can forget why it exists.

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