July 3, 2007

A Word from Zach Wamp

Celebrating Liberty

This year as we celebrate the birth of our nation we should salute the people who have come here from every corner of the world to assimilate and claim the heritage and responsibility of our free society. We are a nation of legal immigration and people who dared to risk all they had, even their very lives, for the things we hold so dear, the best of which are liberty and freedom.

The founders wrote about liberty in the Declaration of Independence more than 200 years ago, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Liberty also plays a role in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

And the Bill of Rights outlines our fundamental rights and freedoms as Americans. In these amendments to our Constitution, the First Amendment alone offers freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Liberty appears again in the Pledge of Allegiance in the line, “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Liberty and freedom are the foundation upon which our country was founded. And they are just as important today as they were in 1776. As we face many challenges in our country, these principles should be the driving force to preserve our way of life. If we are unified around a common purpose, no challenge is too great for the people of the United States.

This year we should honor the birth of our nation by rededicating ourselves to the causes of liberty that must be extended to future generations. We should also honor all of the brave men and women who, as generations before them, have put their lives on the line to protect these freedoms. Happy Fourth of July to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to all of our countrymen.