Still 'time For responsibility'

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial originally appeared in the July 4, 1968, edition of the Daily Inter Lake. We think it is just as relevant today as it was then, though we are happy that parades and fireworks remain part of our local tradition!)

July Fourth is Independence Day. A day set aside to honor the Declaration of Independence which led to the creation of this nation after a war with Great Britain.

Today the observance has dissipated into another holiday which Americans use as an excuse to hit the highways and byways in pursuit of pleasure. Pretty much gone are the so-called Old-Fashioned Fourths highlighted with parades, patriotic speeches and fireworks displays.

As fewer and  fewer communities assume the responsibility for staging such events, it  falls on each of us to pause — however momentarily — and reflect on the significance of that Fourth of July in 1776 when Americans imbued with concepts of freedom and individual dignity cast down the gauntlet on freedom's behalf.

Today Americans are still laying it on the line for freedom — in Vietnam, in Korea, in West Germany and in many otter outposts throughout the free world where our young men are stationed, to back up the commitments of the United States to its allies.

At home, there is over emphasis on dissent and division as we engage in a presidential election campaign and grapple with racial, social and economic problems. The attitudes and actions of those engaged in these domestic struggles have caused concern and alarm to many.

We would like to observe Independence Day as Responsibility Day. Let us not be blind to our shortcomings; but also let us not be blind to the basic good that prevails in our nation. As our young men abroad in uniform or in the Peace Corps act to build a better and safer world, we should act more responsibly at home in resolving our domestic issues.

Dissent, freedom to criticize, and many other individual liberties are really what America is all about. It is only when these rights and privileges are abused that they become offensive and divisive.

So on this Fourth of July let us stop for a moment and ask ourselves if we are not at times being too critical of America without offering an alternative; if we are accepting slogans and concepts from others without evaluation in the context of our own experience; or if we are not too often demanding too much and offering too little in return.

Free men if they are to remain free must act responsibly and constructively. For Americans with a heritage of freedom that antedates even the Declaration of Independence, this is their biggest and most challenging role today. For upon our ability or inability to meet the challenges of our times at home and abroad constructively and within the framework of freedom, may rest the future of freedom in this world.