Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is spending a quiet Fourth of July with his new son and Mrs. Villain. The Villainettes are visiting their esteemed grandparents and it has left the Villainschloss quiet (excepting the cries of the Villain, Jr.).

This morning when your Maximum Leader woke he asked Mrs. Villain, “What day is it?” She replied, “The Fourth.” And your Maximum Leader said pithily, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Alas, Mrs. Villain didn’t get it and your Maximum Leader had to explain it. The moment of the joke was lost.

Of course, your Maximum Leader stopped today and contemplated our nation and its history. This space has been used many times efore to discuss American greatness. We are a nation borne of an abstract idea; and we continue to be a people who daily struggle to fulfill the spirit of that idea. Perhaps you should go and read over the Declaration this day.

While your Maximum Leader has stated before that he does not believe that God himself embued all mankind with certain rights, he did create within each human being the capacity to think and create governments. The rights we enjoy as Americans are a great gift. They are our political inheritance. They come to us from the distant past. Their genesis is from Athens and Rome. From King Henry II of England, we received the gift of common law. From King John, we get the concept (not fully realized for many years after 1215) that all people are subjects of the law. From Oliver Cromwell, we get the idea that even our governors are subject to the law. Our political inheritance also owes great debts to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

But the greatest men to give us our political inheritance are the brave Founders. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and many others. They are the men who risked all they had and owned (remember all the men, regardless of whether or not they signed the Declaration pledged their lives, fortune, and sacred honour). They created a system that we today enjoy, and most others in the world envy.

Have we gotten it right all the time? Of course not. The troubles of our nation are myriad. Slavery, Civil Rights, treatment of Indians are a few. But we have gotten so much more right. Representing the will of the people while respecting dissent. Moderation in Government imposition on the general population. Protecting property rights. Peaceable transfer of government. And so many others. We need to be proud of our political heritage, and mindful that we are now the custodians of our way of life.

We are, at any time, moments away from savagery. The fabric of society is a fragile one. We must always be mindful of our freedoms, but remember that liberty is not license to do as we please when we please. We have a responsibility to be informed of what is going on in our community and nation. We must be involved. And we must actively encourage the growth of political beliefs we hold. And we must be tolerant of those with whom we disagree. But toleration is not the same as equivalence. There is a profound difference that is often lost in the constant cry of diversity in our land.

So this Fourth of July, stop and think about what it means to be American. If your only thoughts about being American consist of fireworks, beer and barbeque; think a little harder. There are millions (perhaps billions) of people who would risk all they had and their very lives to have what you have. There is a reason for that beyond just the material manifestations of freedom. Remember the ideas that are the foundation of our state. And remember that it is the responsibility of every citizen to uphold them in their hearts and actions.

Carry on.