Commentary, editorials and opinion, opinions

"Fourth of July - Reflection and Renewal"

by Arthur I. Cyr

The Fourth of July celebrates community, local as well as national. Parades featuring people in uniform -- scouts, firefighters and police as well as the military and others -- traditionally are a fixture. Military uniforms remind us of the role of war in our history -- and our present.

President Obama hosted a reception at the White House celebrating LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride month. Black Christians should take note and learn a few things about our black President.

As they say, we are what we do.

It tells us something that Mr. Obama had no time to host an event for the National Day of Prayer.

With the retirement of Justice David Souter from the U.S. Supreme Court, the time has come to open the court to television coverage. Souter infamously told a congressional committee in 1996 that "the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body."

Remember the Arnold Schwarzenegger who, exactly five years ago, denounced California legislators as "girlie men" beholden to unions because they failed to pass a state budget? He's back, sensing that time is running out on his 2003 campaign promise to stop "crazy deficit spending."

We take so much for granted. That's why this Fourth of July it's worth meditating, if only briefly, on the Iranians who have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands.

They have braved beatings, snipers, teargas and prison at the hands of plainclothes goon squads and police so heavily armored they have been nicknamed Robocops.

You cannot fight something with nothing. This simple fact should be chiseled in stone above the House and Senate Republican cloakrooms.

Unemployment has reached a 26-year high, the state of California is issuing IOUs instead of money to pay its expenses, other states and most of the businesses in the country are suffering, and what's the Obama administration doing?

If you're planning on a vacation this summer, better make it a road trip, regardless of the price of gas. The skies are getting less friendly all the time, as airlines keep their business models aloft with more "a la carte" pricing. That's the spin they came up with for a myriad of extra fees.

If you're planning on a vacation this summer, better make it a road trip, regardless of the price of gas. The skies are getting less friendly all the time, as airlines keep their business models aloft with more "a la carte" pricing. That's the spin they came up with for a myriad of extra fees.

As the country celebrates another Independence Day weekend, it's worth stepping back from our hot political debates to ask a question: How free is America?