We've changed - but we're still a great country

Ask anyone their thoughts on the Fourth of July holiday and you’re likely to get as many different answers as there are individuals.

Some lament the loss of the home-fireworks display, a staple of many past celebrations. Those old enough might remember cavorting in their yard twirling bright sparklers in the warm, twilight air, watching sizzling, black snakes uncoil — staining dad’s nice front sidewalk — while fountain fireworks blossomed and, now and then, Roman candles chugged their multi-colored charges into the night sky.

With very few exceptions, in Washington, those wanting to actively partake in fireworks today must either do so illegally, or drive to a nearby city, battling for good parking and a small patch of lawn or cement to be able to sit and watch the large, municipal displays. Home fireworks have succumbed to the combination of a lack of common sense — never in short supply — and the increasing firepower of fireworks packages.

Other people may comment about the rotating quality of the holiday, which sometimes falls on the weekend and other times on weekdays, creating different opportunities for observance. Those observances range from the backyard barbecue to a day at the lake boating, swimming, water skiing or other ways of having fun.

But as we embrace the 240th anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence, many of us will take for granted our origins, how we came to be, what it was like back then and how we have changed over time.

Despite what some people say, the United States of America is still a great country. We have more freedoms than citizens in many other countries in this world, including other democracies, will ever hope to possess. We are a good, compassionate, resourceful people and we are one of the most influential societies in the world, even if we often fritter away the capability.

But we are not the country of the Founding Fathers. Much has changed, creating a nation nobody living 240 years ago could have envisioned.

Today, we are much more diverse ethnically, socially, religiously, politically and ideologically than we were in 1776. That’s not even touching the myriad technological advances taking place since then that have shaped our world.

Our country was also geographically smaller, and less densely populated 240 years ago.

We are also different financially too, relying less on a mercantile, agrarian economy and more on an industrial, capitalist one.

All of these have created challenges, challenges our founders could never imagine in their wildest dreams, or most bizarre nightmares. And yet, there are some today who insist we must return somehow to that time, and order our society accordingly.

That’s not possible. We can never be all the founders envisioned because they had no way of envisioning us.

But there is much the founders had that will help us meet our own challenges, if we recognize it. Part of that is recognizing what it means to be a free people.

Yes, freedom isn’t free, to use an expression that is getting somewhat overused. Freedom comes with responsibility. That responsibility is to use our freedoms in ways that do not negatively impact others’ freedoms, even others’ lives.

We can’t always do what we want. But, to paraphrase the lyric of a popular 1960s rock song, we can do what we need.

What we need to do is hang on to, embrace, cherish and be thankful for what we do have. It’s way more than many other people in this world possess, and we are lucky.

On this Fourth of July, let’s pledge not just allegiance to this still great nation of ours, but pledge to be respectful — of other people, of the natural beauty of our land and of our environment.