While you’re drinking cheap beer, waving flags made in China and trying to keep the kids from blowing their fingers off in the name of freedom, we hope you take a moment to appreciate this great nation.

Our nation is great not because of what we have done, although that is impressive; it is great not because of who we are, for we are no more special than anyone else; this nation is great because of the ideals that we reach for and the possibilities that we have yet to become.

Frankly, there’s a whole lot that we have yet to become – fair, equal, just, tolerant – but there are few people that would say we’re not trying and fewer that would encourage us to give up.

That’s why, once a year, in between the drunk driving and the singed eyebrows, we attempt to remind each other that all people are created equal, that every human has the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That the government exists in order help us secure these rights, and that it is our job to make sure that our government does just that.

And it’s way cooler to be annoyed with a president than to be annoyed with a king.

Go back and read over the old Declaration of Independence, and see how clearly the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are direct responses to the list of grievances against King George III.

Then raise your lukewarm can to the people who started this great nation, who had the gumption to say enough is enough and who fought to protect the freedoms of speech, the press and religion; to bear arms; to assemble in public and petition the government; to due process of law; to a speedy trial by a jury of peers; freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, from cruel and unusual punishment and from forced self-incrimination.

Unfortunately, the founders left out the freedom from high gas prices.

So let us celebrate these freedoms in the way that only us Americans can. By getting drunk and blowing stuff up. Happy 4th of July.