Despite terrorism threats, celebrate this holiday fully

Americans, by our very nature, are a rugged, vigilant and resilient lot. On this day, the 239th birthday of our proud nation, many of us may be called on to muster up extra helpings of that ruggedness, vigilance and resilience.

That’s because U.S. intelligence officials are warning that amped-up chatter of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil by the Islamic State may be more than just propagandistic gibberish.

As former former CIA Deputy Director Michael J. Morell put it earlier this week in a televised interview, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That’s how serious this is.”

One need only look at the string of terror attacks across the globe in the past week to give credence to Morell’s dire warning: An ISIS-inspired gunman killed 38, including 30 British nationals, in a midday attack on a Tunisian beach. An ISIS-linked group claimed responsibility for this week’s attack in Egypt that killed 55 government soldiers. And in France last week, a worker at an American-owned company near Lyon was decapitated in an attack that injured several others.

But the threats to our security this holiday weekend are not all from afar. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., some 116 homegrown jihadi plots have been uncovered in the U.S., and more than half of them have been in the past three years.

BE VIGILANT

Clearly, this is a weekend for Americans to be vigilant. But in spite of the heightened threat, it is not a weekend for Americans to surrender to terrorist thugs. Today and Sunday, we should continue to watch patriotic parades, stare in awe at colorful fireworks displays, fly our flags proudly and take time to remember the freedoms that this holiday embodies and how we as a nation achieved them.

We achieved them through hard-fought battles with British imperialists. We maintained them through adverse times of Civil War, World Wars and terror wars. We stood tall and resilient through those and many other adversities in order to preserve and strengthen the freedoms bequeathed to us in the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution. We’re confident we will continue to do so against all threats foreign and domestic – including those this weekend from ISIS and its insidious ilk.