High price for independence

To the Editor:

It has been 231 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To quote John Quincy Adams, "Posterity - you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage." (Professor Alexander Tytler over 230 years ago)

As we "progress" back into bondage for those who care to be free, it would be good to consider the foundations of liberty.

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government: upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison.

Steve Tanner

Bonners Ferry, Idaho