Happy birthday, America, and many more!  How blessed we are to live in a country that came into being because of an idea -- and an ideal -- that all human beings deserved to be free.

Many brave men and women have given their lives for that idea, and that ideal.  Ronald Reagan once offered a warning that's worth keeping in mind as we celebrate the 233 years since this glorious nation's founding:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Happy Independence Day -- and God bless America!