OpEdNews - Diary: Talkin' About Freedom and Independence Day

July 4, 2007 at 09:53:27 Permalink
Talkin' About Freedom and Independence Day

Diary Entry by Cheryl Biren (about the author)

Sifting through old photos, I came across one from 35 years ago today. The state of the nation is hauntingly familiar. Having a few years on me, my state of mind is strikingly different.

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The color is faded, the image blurred by motion, my mother's words on the back read, "July 4, 1972 - Cheri on bike." Leave it to mom to point out the obvious. This Kodak moment portrays a freedom-loving 6-1/2 year old me riding my bicycle adorned with red, white and blue crepe paper and an American flag. I'm adorned in a ridiculous pair of striped bellbottom jeans and my gap-toothed grin is partially hidden by my outstretched hand in the form of a peace sign.

Little did I know, nor would I have cared, that weeks before 5 men were apprehended inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee setting into motion one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history - Watergate. What I did care about was the freedom of running wild with my brothers and cousins on a hot summer day eagerly awaiting our drive into D.C. to watch the firework show over the Washington Monument. I felt safe, happy and free, but the future of my country was in the hands of those adults who would decide whether or not to pursue investigations into the crimes and abuse of power by the Nixon administration.

Here we are, 35 years later, living under an administration that is hungry for power, grabbing it and holding onto it at every turn. The Bush administration's crimes have been deemed by John Dean, former chief counsel to Richard Nixon, as "Worse Than Watergate."

Today, freedom and the 4th of July to me means staying true to the document that was signed over 230 years ago in Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence reads,

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object envinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is there duty, to throw of such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

This July 4, I will eagerly await the fireworks in Philadelphia. I will ooh and aah at the spectacle of colors and sounds as I did as a child, but this time I will stand as a Patriot for I'll know the next day I will get back to the business of impeaching a President and Vice President. For you see, the future of my daughter's country is in my hands - and yours.

Managing editor, OpEdNews.com.

Cheryl Biren is a Philadelphia-based writer, researcher and photographer. Aware of the hazards of corporate news, she works to keep truth alive through people-powered media. (more...)

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