LET FREEDOM RING EVERY DAY, NOT JUST HOLIDAYS

Freedom. It is the foundation on which our nation was founded. It is the lifeblood that regenerates the land.

Freedom. The oppressed have longed to embrace it. Americans have died to achieve it. Too often we take it for granted.

Tomorrow, Americans celebrate our nation's 216th birthday. Families and friends will gather for picnics and revelry. The evening skies will be ablaze with red, white and blue fireworks. We will bask in the glow of more than two centuries of independence.

There's plenty of opportunity to commemorate the holiday in this area. Jackson will host one of the largest celebrations in its city park. Festivities will kick off with a parade Saturday morning. The afternoon will be filled with old-fashioned activities straight from the pages of Norman Rockwell's Americana: a horseshoe tournament, pie and watermelon eating contests, kiddie tractor pull and a greased pig contest. Fireworks will provide the grand finale.

Fireworks will return to Cape Girardeau this year thanks to local businesses and veterans. Deserving special thanks is Cape Girardeau businessman Pete Poe, who organized the effort. Poe brought together the Joint Veterans Council and many area businesses to bring back a community fireworks display. This special local effort epitomizes the American spirit, to which we pay tribute on the Fourth of July.

Our roots stretch to many nations, but we are all Americans. We live in a nation of plenty, but too often citizens go wanting. America has its problems, but she remains great. A look at other countries around the globe puts our prosperity in perspective.

President Lyndon Johnson offered strong words about the founding of America while introducing the Voting Rights Act in 1965. They are words worth remembering today:

"This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: `All men are created equal.' `Government by consent of the governed.' `Give me liberty or give me death.'"

These powerful phrases still ring true today. Yes, there is work to be done. We must all join together to resolve such critical issues as equality, poverty and crime. But amid the consternation remains hope. That hope grows from the ideal of freedom that Americans still hold dear. As long as democracy rules allowing people to speak freely and fight for change there is opportunity for a better life. Sometimes, the ideals become tarnished by the grime of everyday life. But this notion of democracy, on which our nation was founded, remains fundamental to our lives today.

For America to prosper, freedom must ring every day, not just on the Fourth of July.