Happy Birthday America!

I wanted to take our nation's birthday as a chance to talk about what America means to me. (Cliche, I know.)

To me, America can be summed up in that wonderful phrase in our declaration of independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." You hear that? That's the sound of all the absolute monarchs of the old order of Europe shaking in their boots. It may well be self evident to us today, but in 1776 the idea of God given equality truly was radical revolutionary talk. Instead of the then traditional idea of the "divine right of kings", where God bestows special priveleges on a chosen few, everyone in the new society would have equal rights. To all those edgy teens out there today who become communists, anarchists, neo-nazis, or, worst of all, jihadists, because they think there's something "cool" or "glamorous" about being a radical, they need look no further than their own country.

But even more important (and often overlooked) is that word "created". Liberals may not like it, but the use of that word implies that this equality is given to us not by anything good about ourselves, but by God Himself. It is he that gives us any value we have, and this is the fundamental belief of American democracy. It's also what gives Americans our sense of right and wrong. Americans are loath to kill in the name of politics as Communists, Fascists, Anarchists, and Jihadists so readily do, because we believe that all human life is given value by a God who will judge people for their actions.

Sure, America hasn't always lived up to all of those ideals, but we've overcome most of those problems, and that's what being an American means to me.