Today is the 4th of July, the day when every Main Street in the USA is celebrating freedom, specifically the political and economic freedom the people we now know as “the founders” once tried give a permanent home on this continent.

In his 1978 book, A Time for Truth, the late William Simon (Secretary of the Treasury, 1974-1977, under Presidents Nixon and Ford) wrote about discovering true essence of freedom when describing his trip to the old Soviet Union, saying that although they were never directly bothered by anyone while they were in the USSR, they were aware of being under constant observation. It was on the flight back to the U.S. that he gained new insight into the nature of freedom when the pilot announced they had left Soviet air space and everyone on board visibly relaxed. Simon wrote that it was at that moment that he realized that it’s easy to take freedom for granted because it isn’t a presence in our lives, but an absence.

The freedom the founders guaranteed the citizens of this country is simply the freedom to get on with our lives without any hindrance from government, so long as we aren’t hurting anyone else. Life itself is full of obstacles–you’re too short for ballet, you’re too tall to be a fighter pilot, you had terrible parents, you had no parents, you were poor, you were too rich, you have health problems, you lost everything in a tornado, earthquake, flood, you’re the “wrong” sex, or the wrong age, etc., etc.–with all the obstacles that come with just being alive, the profound and historic promise of this country was that our government wasn’t going to be one of them. That’s the real essence of freedom–freedom from government. Freedom from having every aspect of our lives “governed” by others, whether ill-intended or well-meant.

Granted, until we’re all individually governed by ‘the better angels of our nature’ there will always be a need for a minimal amount of government just to keep people from hurting each other and to settle our disputes. However, our “need” for government “assistance” or “protection” pales in comparison to our need to be able to look in a mirror and know that we’re up to the job of living–that whatever obstacles, pitfalls, or setbacks come our way, we can handle them. When we do something stupid or foolish–or just make an honest mistake–we need to know that the person in the mirror has the courage to accept responsibility for the consequences, instead of rationalizing a way to make them our neighbor’s responsibility. And, when the citizens of this country are faced with a threat to our political and economic freedoms, foreign or domestic, we need to know we have the courage to recognize the nature of the threat, and the will to fight for our freedom and the freedom of future generations.