We continue to have plenty to celebrate

As the Fourth of July celebration approaches, the public needs to put aside its thoughts about how much it has lost in the past year because of the crumbling economy.

It is true that many people have seen incomes and retirement plans dwindle and many jobs disappear. We also may like or dislike the people who bear the responsibility for fixing what's broken and wonder whether they are up to the task.

But it is especially appropriate this weekend to realize that while we have lost some things, we continue to have something that many others do not.

Nothing illustrates this better than affairs elsewhere in the world, and particularly in Iran, where protests over the results of its recent national election have been quashed with brute and even deadly force.

The political parties in this country seem to disagree on virtually everything and individuals might find themselves arguing bitterly over policies and approaches, but the right to have these disagreements and have them openly is the one invaluable thing that we have not lost.

Democracy is a messy business and clearly not as efficient as a dictatorship or other form of totalitarian rule. But the signers of the Declaration of Independence some 233 years ago knew that and realized the hazards inherent in the grand experiment they were about to launch.

Despite our sometimes highly vocal criticisms of the failures or excesses attached to the political and governmental processes, we continue to possess the one thing that so many others do not: the right to change the things we can and to disagree when we can't.

That is something worth celebrating.