A newscaster on Fox News says “Stay tuned for a story on what the government is doing to protect you”. A reasonable story? Absolutely. One of our government’s responsibilities as spelled out in the Constitution is to “provide for the common defence.”A more sobering story would be “What are the citizens of this country doing to protect it?” Two hundred thousand solidiers can’t protect this nation but three hundred million citizens can. Each of us needs to be involved in the defense of this country. No nation should ask only some of its citizens to fight for its existence.If the country isn’t safe, then we can’t have the freedoms we enjoy. And, if we aren’t free, we can’t “pursue our Happiness”. We take our safety, freedoms and way of life for granted and aren’t making the sacrifices needed to keep the country strong and thus free. We may be Americans but we aren’t necessarily effective citizens. Only involved citizens can keep a democracy free. (August 2004)
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