Editorial
Remember The Reason We Celebrate 4th Of July

Each year all around the country we hail the anniversary of the nation on July 4 in much the same way-fireworks, parades, picnics, concerts, speeches by elected officials-all in salute to America on the day we consider that the nation first came into being. Many Americans have been participating in Fourth of July festivities literally all their lives; some of us are celebrating the holiday as American citizens for the first time. Whatever the case may be, we all hail this, our nation, on its 230th birthday.

For many of us, the July 4 holiday now starts as early as the immediately preceding Thursday. Tomorrow, millions of Americans will initiate the start of the July 4 celebrations. We'll watch the fireworks and listen to the concerts and we'll all have a thoroughly good time, knowing we've got the holiday off to a rousing start. Perhaps we'll have too good a time. Sometimes the only acknowledgement of the real meaning of the celebration is the color guard that brings in the flag.

The true basis of the Fourth of July can easily get a little lost in the midst of the hot dogs and hamburgers and music and fun. The Founding Fathers and their belief that free men were capable of governing themselves is a footnote to the holiday, rather than the reason we celebrate.

A grim reminder that the cause the signers of the Declaration of Independence put their lives on the line for 230 years ago still needs its defenders came home to us recently. Last week we reported on the renaming of the corner of 47th Avenue and 104th Street in Corona for Army Spc. Marlon Bustamante, a decorated soldier who at age 25 was killed in combat in Iraq, leaving behind a mother, two brothers and a wife and three children. A month ago in this space we saluted 23year-old Sergeant Jose Gomez, also a Corona resident, also killed in Iraq. Gomez, it should be noted, was not yet an American citizen at the time of his death, but chose to serve under this country's flag just the same.

Gomez and Bustamante chose of their own free will to further the cause fought for by the Continental Army at Valley Forge, during the War of 1812, our own Civil War and all the conflicts in which we have ever been engaged-the right of free people to control their own destiny in a republic governed by the laws they enact. On this imminent Fourth of July 2006, we salute them. May all of us take time, however briefly, during the upcoming holiday weekend, amid all the fireworks, fun and feasting, to pause, remember and reflect that we celebrate because of the courage of men of good will and resolute purpose 230 years ago. Their legacy-and the necessity to fight to retain it-remain with us still.