Candace deRussy: Amid the revelry of July 4th — which John Adams foresaw would become a “great anniversary Festival” — I find it inspiring to recall the spiritual foundation of our Founders’ break with the political bondage of the past, i.e., their understanding that it is by the grace of “Nature’s God,” our “Creator,” that we the people are entitled to live in a state of liberty and that, in Adams’s words, the new Festival “ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
Ron Radosh: July 4 gives me time to reflect on the good fortune I had that my parents emigrated from Poland and Russia and came to the United States. Starting from nothing, they both moved into the middle class and gave me a solid foundation to achieve my dreams, and in so doing to appreciate the great country that is the United States of America.
It took me far too long to reject the leftist assumptions I had grown up with, but my own experiences led me to come to understand that for all its problems, the United States stands alone as an experiment that has worked. Our Constitution provides the framework for success, and as I watch the evening fireworks, I am thankful that I am able to say I am an American.
Amity Shlaes: A can of Moxie in my hand, joining the parade in Plymouth Notch, Vt. that marches to the grave of Calvin Coolidge, the only president born on Independence Day, the president who believed in “things of the spirit.”
Tony Woodlief: July 4 is a time to honor those who fought for American freedom, to remember how precious and rare those freedoms are, and to rededicate ourselves to bringing the ever-loving smack to anyone who wants to take them away.