CORONADO, Calif.—Of all the people The Epoch Times asked to share with us the meaning of the Fourth, we'd like to introduce a few of them here. One is four year old Charisma Massey, Tiny Miss East County, from El Cajon, California. Charisma is one of the reasons, and an inspiration, to always remember the deeper meaning of Independence Day. Another person who inspired us is Harald Werner who teaches history and German at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista, California. He reminded us to stay vigilent in a time of globalization.
With barbecues, parades, and fire works Americans celebrated another Fourth of July. However, people did not forget the true reasons why we celebrate this day.
Lori Boyle, a Martial Arts instructor in Coronado said, “Family, friendship, being thankful for our freedom, being blessed by our armed forces.”
Four year old Charisma Massey, crowned “Tiny Miss East County,” participated in the City of Coronado’s 60th Annual Independence Day Parade. With two other beauty queens she sat on a small trailer float surrounded by a white picket fence with a sign that said “2008 Queens of East County,” and decorated by red-white-and-blue streamers, flags and stars. They were waiting for the parade to start.
Charisma doesn’t yet attend school, but she is already very clear about the meaning of the Fourth: “Freedom!” she stated firmly. Everyone around applauded her.
Sons of the American Revolution
Tom Cubo, answered our question like a true patriot of the revolution: “The Fourth of July is about America’s Independence, our freedom and independence from the tyrannical rule of the British crown!”
His fellow brother in arms, Philip Ketcha, said, “The Declaration of Independence.”
Asked how that applies to us today, he added, “That is the basis of our government, of what we believe in.”
Harald Werner—History Teacher
Werner explained that the 4th of July is actually not the real date on which this all happened, it just happens to be the date we kind of chose to celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
He continued, “And what it simply means is that this was the first time in history people stood up and created a new form of government that’s protective of individual freedoms. And that is probably the most important aspect because from this we get our Constitution that gives us the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms if we wish, and the freedom to pursue happiness, if you will. And the Fourth of July is a recognition and celebration of that beginning moment which established this country.”
Asked how that is relevant today in our world, Werner said, “It is just as relevant today as it was 232 years ago because we still have many places across the world that don’t have these freedoms, and I don’t remember exactly who said it, but someone out there, whose quote I can sort of paraphrase, said that any kind of tyranny anywhere is tyranny that can occur at home.”
Werner went on to say, “So we have to be aware that freedom does not come cheap, it’s paid for. And throughout our history we had many different wars that we fought in order to maintain the freedoms that we have. And if we don’t stay vigilant we can lose those freedoms. It’s a constant struggle against forces of tyranny that [want] to take away the freedoms that we have.
Werner said he tries to get his students to understand that the freedoms we are actually talking about are ones they have to struggle for, they have in essence fight for them every day. And even though they are enshrined in our constitution, in our laws, it doesn’t mean that somebody isn’t going to try to come and take them away.
Werner stressed the importance of voting. He said, “Unfortunately, in the US only about 30% of the people vote. That means about 70% of the people put up with what those 30% vote for. The more people that are involved in democracy, the better it is,” he said.
Asked what he considers some of the most important issues today that might erode freedom in America, Werner said, “One issue that I’ve had some personal experience with, is foreign governments trying to sway American public opinion through lies and deceit and the use of agents, paid agents, to form American public opinion. And in this particular case I am talking about Flushing, NY where the Chinese communist regime has recently brought in people and paid them to harass and assault members of Falun Gong, who are also US citizens, and tried to shut them up for protesting against the Chinese regime. This has gone on for close to two months now, and that’s something we just cannot tolerate or ignore.”
Werner said his wife is Chinese, from mainland China, and practices Falun Gong. “I went to Flushing with my wife because she wanted to support the beleaguered Falun Gong practitioners there. The repression of Falun Gong in China and the suppression of all basic human rights in China is already a huge crime against humanity that the world cannot ignore. But the recent importation of violence against Falun Gong onto American soil [in Flushing] which seems to be orchestrated by the Chinese Consulate in NY, is absolutely outrageous and should ring loud alarm bells in America. But it hasn’t.”
Asked what he thought why we don’t hear about any of this in our mainstream media, Werner replied, “The only thing that I can say right now is that there are economic factors that are causing our media to keep quiet because many of the media want to be able to report on the Beijing Olympics. And then our government is also quiet because the Chinese have bought up to 12 billion dollars of our debt--at least I think that’s the number.”
Werner agreed that living in a more globalized community bring up new problems, new issues, in regard to freedom and human rights. He said, “On the one hand globalization is good, in that the idea is that by tying us all together economically, we’re less likely to go to war with each other. And war is absolutely horrid, and no one wins. But on the other hand, what it [globalization] does, because of the economics, it causes people to start thinking twice about defending the basic individual rights we have as Americans, and wanting to extend those rights to the people of the world. Because these rights are not just American rights, they’re human rights.”
Werner continued, “As I said before, any kind of persecution, or any kind of tyranny anywhere is a danger to individual rights and freedom everywhere. Therefore, we really can’t rest until there’s democracy in every nation, for every people. They get to choose how that democracy might work, but the idea that everyone has a voice in running their government, that is something that is, I think, a universal necessity. It’s a universal given that democracy and the involvement of every person in how society runs, is the only thing that keeps people safe.”
