Don't you dare celebrate the Fourth of July by having a good time. You must sacrifice!
"That's the bet our Founding Fathers were making all of those years -- that our individual destinies could be tied together in the common destiny of democracy, that government depends not just on the consent of the governed but on the service of citizens," he told a small audience filling a gymnasium at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. "That's what history calls us to do, because loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it."
Americans hunger for patriotic service to the nation, but do not see ways to personally make a difference.
What is lacking today is not a need for patriotic service, nor a willingness to serve, but the opportunity. Indeed, one of the curious truths of our era is that while opportunities to serve ourselves have exploded---with ever-expanding choices of what to buy, where to eat, what to read, watch, or listen to---opportunities to spend some time serving our country have narrowed.
I will be thankful tomorrow that neither Obama nor McCain is president yet. We still have six more months to call our lives our own.
