The words of the U.S. Constitution recognize the right of all religions to exist and to be freely exercised, but not the right of the government to make adherence to a religion a requirement of citizenship. You can be an atheist in America, but you do not have the right to insist that everyone else ignore God.

Some sage once noted that America is the only nation that was founded on the basis of words. Tribes did not found this nation. No king proclaimed its existence. We are a nation held together by a framework of words in our Declaration of Independence and, most importantly, in the U.S. Constitution.

Federalist Paper Number 15 noted that "In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as for religious rights," declaring that "Justice is the end [or purpose] of government." The authors of the Federalist Papers were John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. Together, they produced 85 papers advocating the acceptance and adoption by the American states of the Constitution of the United States, as drafted and proposed by the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Thereafter, many people have striven to express what America represents. On July 4 and every other day of the year, we need to remind ourselves of the precious freedoms we enjoy and of the constant threat to those freedoms.

Thornton Wilder noted that the Founding Fathers "did not only leave the Old World, they repudiated it. Americans start from scratch." That Old World was run by monarchs and despots. The New World, while including many nations that now have elections, is still filled with far too many in which the voice of the people has no power whatsoever.

Adlai Stevenson said, "America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact--the first [national political and moral] community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize [individual] freedom, responsible government, and human equality [i.e., equality of citizens before the law of their community]."

"If you expect people to be ignorant and free, you expect what never was and never will be," said Thomas Jefferson.

The message was repeated in every generation. William Henry Harrison said, "We admit of no government by divine right; the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed."

Wendell Phillips said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." General Douglas McCarthur said, "The inescapable price of liberty is an ability to preserve it from destruction."

In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, "The world is different now. For humans hold in their mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet, the same revolutionary faith for which our forebearers fought is still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of humanity come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God."

Humanity was on the mind of Archibald MacLeish who wrote, "There are those, I know, wo will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream."

Alan Caruba is the founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. At http://www.anxietycenter.com, the Internet website maintained by the Center, Caruba writes a weekly column, WARNING SIGNS. He is also the author of A POCKET GUIDE TO MILITANT ISLAM and THE UNITED NATIONS VS. THE UNITED STATES.

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