Remember January 6 on July 4

This Fourth of July as we celebrate our Independence and our freedoms, let us not forget that the history of our great country is one of expanding our democracy, the right of the citizens to vote and to decide our future. That 246-year tradition is now being threatened by an extreme element of one political party which is hellbent on restricting voting rights and, as seen on January 6, 2021, using violence and any means necessary to overturn a free and fair election.

As you sit among the crowd of people, young and old, celebrating our birth of freedom and the country we have become thanks to the sacrifices of generations to preserve it and to expand our democracy at home and around the world, juxtapose that spirit, that image against what we witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, as an angry mob tried to overturn our democratic process.

It falls upon us to restore the faith in our democracy and be sure we never again allow such extreme anti-democratic forces to gain control of our country. We owe it to our children and future generations to act, to vote with determination to assure that the ‘Grand Old Flag’ we honor on July Fourth will forever wave proudly over the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’.

Larry Hodgden

Tipton