US continues to broaden noble ideals of Declaration

Americans, by our very nature, are a rugged, vigilant and resilient lot. On this day, the 240th birthday of our proud nation’s Declaration of Independence, many of us may be called on to muster up extra helpings of that ruggedness, vigilance and resilience.

That’s because intelligence officials warn once again of amped-up chatter of a potential terrorist attack on U.S. soil by the Islamic State group.

A pro-IS Twitter account reportedly has threatened to attack Los Angeles International, New York City’s John F. Kennedy International and/or London’s Heathrow airports to cap the monthlong Muslim Ramadan holiday that ends Wednesday.

One need only look at the string of terror attacks across the globe in recent days and weeks to regard the new threats as more than propagandist gibberish:

An IS suicide truck bomb Sunday in downtown Baghdad killed 115 people and wounded nearly 200 others who were out shopping and celebrating.

A militant IS-inspired attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh ended in the deaths of 20 hostages Saturday.

An attack believed to have been executed by IS at Istanbul’s main airport killed at least 44 people last Tuesday.

In our homeland, a terror attack at an Orland gay nightclub killed 49 patrons three weeks ago.

Clearly, this is a holiday for Americans to be vigilant. But in spite of the heightened threat, it is not a time for Americans to surrender to terrorist thugs. That, of course, has never been the American way.

Instead today 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 on this national holiday from ISIS and its insidious ilk.

CELEBRATE EXPANDING LIBERTY

This Independence Day also is a prime time to celebrate the enduring strength of the words of the Declaration, the bedrock foundation of this nation’s most noble ideals.

Adopted July 4, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress of the American colonies in Philadelphia, its powerful words continue to resonate today: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In the 240 years since the Declaration’s adoption, America has stayed steadfastly true to those nation-defining ideals. It hasn’t always been easy or without pain, anger and bloodshed, but in those nearly 21/2 centuries, the United States has worked consistently to expand its commitment to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness to an increasingly large segment of our rich and diverse populace.

Americans have fought and overcome a host of threats – slavery, the Civil War, two World Wars, and civil-rights quandaries to name a few – to achieving a more robust land of liberty. Most recently, the nation has broadened its promises of equality, freedom and liberty to the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transsexual community. Just last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender individuals will be allowed to serve openly in the military.

But in spite of the freedom-broadening strides we’ve made as a nation, there still remains considerable room to evolve toward the “more perfect union” that our Founding Fathers had envisioned in our Constitution. As rhetoric surrounding this year’s acidic presidential election illustrates, racism, sexism, xenophobia and other divisive ills repugnant to our egalitarian ideals continue to flourish.

Yet, we are confident that most Americans will continue to muster up healthy doses of that same vigilance and resilience that have so long characterized our spirit to defend, protect and expand further the liberties we celebrate today.