Our Precious Freedom - Jeff Wentworth

The Fourth of July marks the day when, 234 years ago, the founders of this nation declared to the world that America preferred a government of the people, by the people and for the people over that of being ruled by a king.

Citizens of older countries looked upon the Declaration of Independence as reckless and even ridiculous.  The colonists had no real army or navy.  If by some miracle, they should defeat the British, the idea of a people governing themselves was absurd.

Our nation’s founders understood that the document they signed on July 4 did more than audaciously declare a nation’s independence.  Its words defined a nation and set it apart from all others then and now.

Transforming the founding fathers’ vision of a democratic republic into a functioning government was not, and never will be, easy.  Democracy is work.  It is a form of government that demands much of its citizens.

Intellectually, it is easier to let a monarch, a junta, or a despot tell citizens what to do than it is to participate in the governing process.  Thomas Jefferson knew that the republic needed educated citizens for its survival.

“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper function of a republic.  Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight,” Jefferson insisted.  He developed a plan in which all children, rich and poor, were entitled to three years of free public education paid for by taxes “levied on the wealth of the country.”

Current public school and higher education funding accounts for 41 percent of Texas’ general revenue-related spending.  Despite education’s taking up the lion’s share of the budget, the Texas Legislature last year increased public education funding by $1.9 billion and higher education funding by $1.2 billion, resulting in a total of more than $75 billion for public and higher education.

While an educated citizenry is the foundation of a self-governing nation, citizens also must be willing to make personal sacrifices in the name of freedom. More than a million American men and women have given their lives in defense of our nation.  The willingness to put one’s life on the line for an ideal continues today on the streets of Baghdad and in the mountains of Afghanistan.

More than 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq, and more than 1,000 have given their lives in Afghanistan.  Their sacrifice and that of more than 38,000 wounded military men and women must not be forgotten on the Fourth of July.

The war against terrorism will continue to try our patience, test our resolve and take the lives of those who fight so that we may live free.

Preserving freedom is as arduous today as it was during the Revolutionary War when pamphleteer Thomas Paine wrote, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”