July 4th is Your Call to Duty

July 2, 2009

Below is a special Independence Day column from former Congressman Lee Hamilton, “July 4th Is Your Call to Duty.” As a public service, Hamilton writes regularly about Congress and what individuals can do to make our representative democracy work better. His columns are part of the educational mission of the Center on Congress at Indiana University, where he is director. (www.centeroncongress.org) July 4th Is Your Call to Duty By Lee Hamilton Every year as the Fourth of July approaches, I’m struck by how inadequate a label “Independence Day” is. I certainly don’t mean to downplay the courage of our Founders in fighting a war to guarantee independence. But if you really think about it, what we’re celebrating on the 4th is not a war, it’s a concept. What was truly revolutionary about the American Revolution was the notion that in a legitimate government, the people are sovereign — the ultimate rulers. The great phrases of the day ring through our history: “We the people,” “consent of the governed,” “blessings of liberty,” “a more perfect union.” These aren’t just technical terms of political science. They are words we live by, the core tenets of our nation’s civic faith. Our system rests on the belief that freedom can only exist when one is governed with one’s consent, and with a voice in government. No one, the Founders believed, is good enough to govern another person without this consent, and they embedded this concept in the very bones of our system. That is what made our country the American Experiment. At the time the Constitution was written, no one knew whether dividing power among various branches and levels of government would ensure popular freedom and political ingenuity. No one knew whether, over the course of decades and then centuries, the two tyrannies feared by the Founders — that of a strong executive, and that of a strong popular majority — could be constrained by a written constitution. And certainly no one knew whether, in a large and diverse society, Congress would reflect the will of the majority while still protecting the rights of the minority. At any given moment in our history, you can find Americans arguing that the experiment is in danger of failing. Yet ours is now the oldest written constitution of a nation still in use. It has stood the test of time. There is, however, no guarantee that it will stand all future tests. On this and every July 4th, as we celebrate our past, we must also remember that because in our land the people are sovereign, each of us has a duty to be an active and informed citizen, doing our share of the work to make America a more perfect union. Lee Hamilton is Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years, retiring in 1999. In 2005, he received NCoC’s Citizen of the Year award.