Traditionally, the 4th of July is celebrated as “Independence Day” because the Declaration of Independence was formally dated that day. However, as historians, especially libertarian historians, are wont to point out, the 2nd of July, 1776 , was the day that the Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence, and the last of the signers did not get to append their signatures to the formal copy until some months later. Many people celebrate the 2nd, then, with actual firing of salutes and other weapons, rather than with the traditional fireworks of two days later. I chose to call the 2nd of July, then, “Liberty Day.”

We approach the beginning of Anno Libertatus 232; the 231st anniversary of that first Liberty Day, Tuesday, 2 July 1776 Anno Domini. The day when a handful of men, supported by perhaps a third of the people who lived along a narrow edge of a vast continent, chose to defy the world’s most powerful monarch, parliament, and empire. It is therefore seemly to count the blessings of liberty which we, as physical and spiritual heirs of those people, enjoy more than two centuries later.

There are many problems that we face, 232 years later, and many liberties we no longer enjoy, at least not to the degree that our philosophical forefathers did. But we, in this great union, both in law and in fact, have an overall level of freedom, both individual and corporate, higher than that of the inhabitants of every other nation on this poor, benighted planet. Not every one of us share every one of those liberties, and that is bad and wrong.

But overall, we are better off than even the wealthiest of foreign denizens (why else would the rich flock here so much); better off even than the tyrannical rulers of those other lands. It is far too easy, in the turmoil of daily life, and as we fight battles on a hundred fronts in a thousand counties and ten thousand towns, to forget that plain fact. Abused and warped and corrupted as our nation, our society, and those evil things we call governments have become, we are still better off.

• Here are a few of the blessings to count, this Liberty Day:
• Freedom to defend ourselves and others
• Freedom to speak AND freedom to listen
• Freedom to be silent AND freedom to ignore what others say
• Freedom from hunger
• Freedom from fear
• Freedom to work and even, to earn a living for ourselves and our families
• Freedom to travel, by many means, and in relative comfort and with relatively few limits and restrictions
• Freedom to NOT travel: to stay in one place and not be uprooted by the whim of some bureaucrat or cop
• Freedom to participate and not to participate
• Freedom to worship AND freedom to not worship
• Freedom to resist – more than just violence
• Freedom to give AND freedom to receive
• Freedom to quit and to change

I don’t list these in any real order, and I limit myself to thirteen (A Baker’s Dozen ™) for symbolism: it was thirteen states that joined together that long-ago Tuesday. These are not freedoms given or even protected by government: some come from our society, some come from our economy, some come from our historical and cultural and religious background, and I think a lot of them we have because we did NOT have so much government in the past as we do today.

Yes, again, I recognized that many of these freedoms are under attack – there are are many citizens and residents of these fifty states that do NOT enjoy one or more of these freedoms, that many of these freedoms are limited today as compared to 10, 25, 50, or 231 years ago (although some have expanded, in fact if not in law). I know that much of this freedom is wasted, abused, corrupted by people who seemingly are willing to “lick the chains” on them. But...

It’s a big word, “but.” But we still HAVE these freedoms, to a degree overall that NO other land on earth with a civilization beyond hunter-gatherer and “stick-in-the-ground” farmer has ever, EVER had. Sadly, I admit. In part, because it means the ideal of the Founders of a “city on a hill” has not truly succeeded. BUT! But utopia is NOT an option. With all our troubles, all our loss, all our serious problems, I will have more individual freedom (not just political freedom) here in the Four Corners or the Black Hills than in any other land on earth.

Our challenge, after we remember and count our blessings, this new 232nd year of Liberty , this 2007th year of (some of) Our Lord, is clear. Despite the setbacks, and despite the lack of perfection (or anything close), we need to enjoy, to use, to preserve, to restore, AND to extend human freedom. We need to “proclaim liberty” to all the land and its inhabitants, to set free the oppressed, cheer up the fainting, kick-start the lagging, encourage the weary, and work to WIN liberty, human liberty.

Happy Liberty Day.

Nathan Barton is writing this from a wonderful place in the West, which might be in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Wyoming, or might be in one of the Four Corners States. Exactly where it is, the breezes blow with the scent of liberty, and the sound of the pines or the pinions is the sound of freedom. For thousands of years, people have fought and died for the liberty that Americans in the great spaces of the West enjoy, and he writes these commentaries in the hopes that continued generations will be able to do so, until the end of Time.