As the 4th of July approaches, I reflect upon my gratitude for being a citizen of this great nation. As I peruse the plethora of news and political websites for my daily (or hourly) dose of information overload, I am reminded of the many privileges and freedoms we enjoy here in America. I am also thankful for the strength and courage of the men and women who serve in the world’s mightiest military, and ensure that our great nation will endure for generations to come, despite the many pacifists that abound.

Yet, despite America’s greatness, its citizens and leaders are traversing a perilous bridge to serfdom. Each day it appears that the freedom that countless men and women have sacrificed their lives for is under assault. Assault from the self-aggrandizement of incompetent so-called leaders. Assault from mendacious ideologues imposing their insidious agendas to fulfill their utopian visions of the world. Assault from obsequious public officials whose self-serving policies continually feed the cancerous growth of the hegemony known as government. Assault from those whose narcosis from government entitlements is at the root of such policies. Assault from socialists, both elected and un-elected, who ignore the long history of their rapacious philosophy, and whose improvidence will be our nation’s demise.

America has digressed far from the vision of its founders. Today, dependency has replaced self-reliance; blame has replaced responsibility; intrusion superseding privacy; and true freedom succumbing to a miasma of control. The evidence of this assault has become as ubiquitous as the television -- both programming the unsuspecting minds of their audience. Today, race has been transformed into a poker player’s dream -- trumping the law and the values upon which this nation rests, and tossed into the pot of opportunity where demagogues are steadily raking it in. Government has risen to the level of religious worship, where politicians and legislation are viewed as the saviors of mankind.

We now live in a society were independence has become relative. The Constitution, once a pillar of justice in America, has become a mere casual tool of judicial activists. Individual rights are being supplanted by the will of the few and the many. Government seems limited only by the imaginations of the self-anointed.

This weekend, let us celebrate those who have risen to the challenge, and honor those who have fallen for us. Let us shed the shackles of false promises, false idols, and utopian visions. Let us remember that freedom is not static, independence not relative, and that our greatness hinges on this realization. But most of all, let us not cross the bridge to serfdom.