An Independence Day Editorial: America's noisy 239th year of change

The 239th year of the American experiment has been, no matter your political perspective, a tumultuous one.

It's a year that's been marked by momentous Supreme Court rulings in favor of marriage equality and the federal health care mandate, an oftentimes polarizing examination of police behavior in our nation's black communities, offers of pathways to citizenship for immigrants who entered the country illegally, debates over government spying on our phone and digital records, arguments over the minimum wage and so-called distribution of wealth proposals, rising momentum on the side of looser restrictions on marijuana use, the heartache of unrelenting gang violence and the nation's seeming inability to control it, continued government spending that seems to ignore common sense fiscal constraints.

Sometimes it seems as if we attribute almost divine stature to our Founding Fathers. What, we ask ourselves, did they intend with this Constitutional passage or that?

They were visionary men, but they were not perfect. The facts that they were all men and that all were white and that many owned slaves and that some questioned the wisdom of allowing average citizens access to the electoral process are hints enough that they were imperfect and that their times were very different from our own.

This is not to fault them, any more than we would fault ourselves for failing to conceive of the everyday lives and challenges that will confront our heirs in the year 2254.

But as we conclude our weekend celebration of our freedoms and the nation's independence, it is to underscore how much the American experiment is a living, evolving journey "toward a more perfect union."

Never getting to that ideal destination, but always striving to get closer.

"The American Revolution," Woodrow Wilson said, "was a beginning, not a consummation."

Franklin Roosevelt said somewhat the same thing but with different words: "In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be achieved."

We like the beautiful way Dwight Eisenhower articulated the thought best of all: "Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed, or like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die."

The republic evolves. The nation advances.

Each of us has our role to play.

In a democracy, each of us has a mandate to take part. Each of us has an obligation to pay attention; to consider and investigate all sides of a problem; to approach an issue with an open mind, disdaining predisposition; and then to argue our cause.

These are the duties of citizenship. These are the ingredients of a great nation.