The spirit

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: July 4, 2008

Today we celebrate one of the most audacious political statements in world history.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence didn’t create America — years of war would eventually do that. But it created something even more important. It gave us the idea of what being an American was supposed to be all about.

Today, we press the template of expectations against the messy reality of our problems — and our inability to solve those problems. It seems that we come up hopelessly short.

But the American system wasn’t meant to get the entire country to march in lockstep, it was designed to endure the battering of conflicting opinions and differing viewpoints. We have tough problems and lots of disagreements, but the system was designed to handle those stresses.

We’re being too hard on ourselves.

The real danger isn’t that we can’t seem to figure out what to do about terrorism, energy, wars, health care and all of our other problems. The danger is that we’ll simply walk away from those problems, turning our back on the system that can do something about them (hint: it’s not cable TV scream-a-thons).

America most certainly can be fixed.

In four short months, we’ll have a chance to elect a president, a U.S. senator and a congressman.

How many of us will vote? For some reason, presidential elections draw the most voters. But every election is important, because each and every election gives us an opportunity to shape the path our country is on.

Elections are the only way to fix things in this country. In the voting booth, every American stands as an equal, regardless of race, creed, color, income or any other superficial measure.

Our system was not only built to accept the will of the people, it relies on their active participation.

This newspaper recently reported on two groups of young people working in our community to register new voters. Those new voters — and the voters already registered — are challenged to put the power they now have to good use.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence faced a traitor’s death for rebelling against the British crown. Much more recently, we’ve seen images of brave Iraqis risking their lives to vote and to shape their country’s future. History tells us that many groups of people have had to fight for the rights that Americans enjoy today.

At least once every year — and sometimes as often as three times in a year — an election is held and our ongoing experiment with self-government is put to the test. It’s a test we should work hard to pass.

Independence Day is a reminder that American democracy is not a spectator sport.