Fireworks and the Fuel of Liberty

Our national holidays tend to be remembered first for the convenience they provide and second for their meaning, if meaning is remembered at all. Independence Day is no different. It provides a shorter workweek, an excuse for fireworks displays, picnics, friends and family, a day at the beach.

But of course the 4th stands for much more. The Declaration of Independence 220 years ago and later documents--the Constitution, adopted in 1787, and the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791--set a course for a new nation. They were not perfect and sometimes have been incorrectly interpreted. But the ideals set forth in them and in some of the subsequent constitutional amendments are among the most nearly perfect of human creations.

Equality. Freedom of speech and of expression. Freedom of assembly. Freedom of religion. These are sacred rights that extend to all Americans. These rights are sometimes forgotten or ignored, or maliciously breached. When that happens, Americans do not respond meekly.

In the last six years, for example, federal authorities have investigated 216 church fires. Many were caused by arson. More than half of these fires have occurred within the last 18 months, and roughly 70% involve black churches in the South.

If intimidation and passivity were the goal, it has not worked. Groups from various denominations and faiths, including Christian right and Jewish groups, have offered significant assistance in helping the churches rebuild. Officials in cities across the country, including some here in Southern California, are raising money for that purpose. And even Washington, which has trouble agreeing on anything regardless of who is in charge, has responded with presidential and congressional initiatives including funds and much tougher federal penalties against racial and ethnic attacks on churches.

The same government isn’t as clear on free speech. The Supreme Court recently struck down a federal law in which the government had tried to regulate speech on cable television. Americans agree on the need to protect children from exposure to sexually explicit programs, but government censorship goes too far; parental control, aided by devices that can block certain programming, works far better. Unfortunately, the Justice Department intends to appeal a federal court decision against an equally oppressive and badly written law curtailing free speech on the Internet.

There will always be those who try to bend the unalienable rights that the nation celebrates today to suit an unintended purpose. Consider, for example, the allegedly anti-government Montana “freeman” who was all too happy to soak up more than $1 million in federal farm subsidies and low-interest federal Farmers Home Administration loans.

The art is in the response. In Montgomery, Ala., James Hood, an African American, is earning a doctoral degree from the University of Alabama. Hood has invited former Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to his degree ceremony next month. Wallace was the fiery segregationist who tried to bar Hood at the schoolhouse door in 1963. Now Wallace, health permitting, will attend.