Independence Day

On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress assigned Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston to draft a declaration of independence - even as the American army retreated to Lake Champlain from Canada.

On July 2, Congress declared independence as the British fleet and army arrived in New York.

And on July 4, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington received a copy, and five days later, he ordered it be read to the American army in New York.

Dramatic, milestone days in our country's birth. Days filled with much risk and danger for the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence - a document that the world would come to respect and envy. We should appreciate and understand this defiant, hopeful call to action on this 234th and every observation of our Independence Day.

From the 2.5 million people living in the 13 Colonies in 1776, our nation has grown to nearly 310 million in 50 states. In between were many growing pains, including the Civil War, which nearly destroyed us.

But from that conflict and other strife, our melting pot of wave after wave of immigrants overcame one adversity after another to build the greatest free nation on Earth.

How we protect and use our freedom defines our future. As E. Jane Rutter, Director of Stewardship for the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo., wrote recently, our insistence on individual rights must not become an attitude of entitlement. She warns that many Americans have “swallowed the false belief that we deserve to have whatever we want simply because we are. ... The Doctrine of Rights only works by convincing us that our lives have no purpose beyond self-satisfaction, truth is situational, and human life has no greater value or span than does a blade of grass.”

Our Founding Fathers understood what it took to earn freedom. Our veterans of many past and present wars since the American Revolution learned the enormous cost of protecting freedom. Today and always we must honor their sacrifice, remember the lessons of history and never take for granted what so many others on this planet still do not have.