W. Howard Coop, 32°
111 Dogwood Drive
Lancaster, Kentucky 40444–1034

Americans must not only cherish our rights but also assume our responsibilities.

Independence Day is one of the cherished holidays of the United States. As a reminder of the historic signing of the Declaration of Independence, the day is a challenge to everyone to consider the basic reason for our nation's existence. Because people desired freedom to exercise certain fundamental rights, they fled tyranny and oppression. Forsaking their homes and all that was dear to them, they sailed to a new land, with all the dangers involved, to establish homes, create a government, and build a society in which the fundamental freedom they cherished was guaranteed.

In recent years, the idea seems to have emerged that freedom is nothing more than the absence of restraints. As a result, we have witnessed nonconformity, disobedience, revolution, and social upheaval as restraints have been cast aside. But this is not freedom; it is anarchy. The poignant words of one author speak to this situation: "The recklessness of...radicals may destroy the very system that now protects them. They may, like Samson, bring the temple down on their heads."

True freedom is not the absence of restraints; it is the presence of moral restraint. Carl Sandburg put it well when he wrote, "Hand in hand with freedom goes responsibility." Hartley Coleridge went a step further when he wrote, "But what is freedom? Rightly understood, a universal license to be good." If true freedom is to prevail, our nation must preserve its precious heritage and remain true to the basic principle upon which it was founded. This can be done when we become a nation of patriots who not only cherish our rights but also assume our responsibilities.

W. Howard Coop is a retired United Methodist Minister and has been a Mason since 1952. He is a Past Master of Lancaster Lodge No. 104, currently serving as Chaplain, a member of Lancaster Chapter No. 56 R.A.M. and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Louisville, Kentucky.