Happy Fourth of July!

Our own liberty should give us perspective on pursuit of freedom abroad.

When we declared our independence, we were only demanding our freedom. For a while, we thought we were defending our freedoms as British citizens. It took more than a century to really move from being British, to being citizens of the states, to being Americans of the United States of America. In 1898, we were still seeking to heal the wounds of the Civil War and unite our nation.

It took years more after July 4, 1776, of fighting--over decades, really--to win our freedom, and while we won independence, our democracy was not what we'd call democracy today. But it was democracy for its day, and quite radical for the age.

As time went on, the franchise expanded, slavery was ended in a bloody civil war, the franchise was expanded again,  rule of law for all was strengthened, and democracy as we understand it was slowly built.

Yes, the power of the state seems to have grown too much and seems to infringe on personal liberty, but we can correct that within our system. But it will take time.

Don't make the pursuit of the perfect the enemy of the good. Just getting something better than before is something to be happy about, isn't it?

So have a happy Fourth of July. I think we'll be fine. We're Americans.