Happy Independence Day Kim Jong-il

Well, my fellow Americans, our nation has reached its 233rd birthday, and this fact should make us all feel great.

For all of our struggles and challenges, the United States continues to lead the way when it comes to operating a relatively free and democratic society. I cannot imagine wanting to be a citizen of any other country.

Obviously, these are not the best of times in America. The economy continues in its recession as most experts predict the national unemployment rate will reach 10 percent in the coming months.

Internationally, our hands remain full in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran continues to be a powder keg. However, our most troubling foreign challenge may be coming from North Korea.

Lately, the nation's tyrannical leader Kim Jong-il has been making numerous threats against the United States. Among those threats is that his country may attempt to launch a missile toward Hawaii today.

As you read this, I hope this has not happened. Most experts consider Kim a lunatic and brush off his threats as just more of his ranting. In one way, the experts make sense.

Why would the leader of a small Asian nation attack a world superpower on its national birthday? From a logical standpoint, it does not compute.

This problem is that Kim genuinely is a lunatic. Any leader that declines international aid while his country is undergoing a famine, but at the same time, sends people to Beijing to get him food from McDonald's is a lunatic.

He rules with brutal power, and if he became crazy enough to launch an attack against us, I doubt there is anybody brave enough within his government to stand up to him.

If a launch happened, the missile would fall harmlessly in the ocean, but a hostile act like this would start an international crisis.

This may be what Kim is wanting. This may be a case of a dictator beating his chest to see how a relatively inexperienced leader like President Barack Obama will react.

It is a pretty kooky way of getting attention, but this is what Kim does. On the positive side, I am confident that President Obama understands that Kim is just trying to feel him out.

Still, what if the unthinkable happened and North Korea launched an attack that reached America? The last thing most citizens are thinking about on Independence Day is an attack from the other side of the world.

America is already fighting a war on two fronts. A North Korean attack would definitely be an act of war. Do we have the resources to fight on a third front?

If we aggressively responded to North Korea, they would definitely respond by attacking South Korea, and another big mess would be on the international scene.

However, our nation has been at war since 2001. Another commitment of troops into a war zone would be quite a burden on soldiers that are already wearing out. There is no telling how this would work out.

The bottom line is we cannot predict if others will attack us or not. This applies to international politics as well as our personal lives. Sometimes people fire missiles unexpectedly into our lives, too.

All we can really do is live our lives to the best of our ability. In the long run, it will all fade away. It's a reality Michael Jackson could answer all too well right now. What good is the title the 'King of Pop' doing him now?

No matter what happens, keep it all in perspective.

Happy Independence Day.

Please make the most of the holiday weekend

We have reached the July 4th holiday weekend, and perhaps the most amazing aspect of it is that we are already half way through the year.

The last six months and a few days have zoomed by. When I was a boy, it felt like time crawled. I was warned back then that it would not always seem that way, and now that I am older I can see they were right.

Time is a precious resource, and we better make the most of it because we never know when we will be out of it.

As for July 4th, I hope we all took time to reflect on the significance of this holiday. Birthdays are important days for us all, and the same goes for our nation.

Our nation is now 232 years old and continues to be a shining example of democracy and freedom.

Of course, our country does have its problems. In addition to social problems that are too numerous to cover here, we are now struggling with a slowing economy, rising unemployment, high gas prices, and an unpopular war.

However, if nothing else, this holiday should make us feel grateful for the many freedoms we have.

For example, consider freedom of the press. When we open our favorite newspaper, I doubt many of us take the time to consider just how unique a document it is.

In many countries that are not democracies, the government's first priority is to strangle all efforts to have a free press. After all, if they want to control their citizens, the last thing they want is for them to read about what is really going on with their government.

Though our media is sometimes bashed, we should never lose sight of the need for a free and independent press. Also, the media should never forget that it has been blessed with a sacred responsibility to serve the public.

More and more media outlets are taking on the characteristics of large corporations. As anybody who has worked for a large corporation can attest, the adjectives "free" and "independent" are often the last words used to describe the culture in those organizations.

Because of this, the media must never forget that they are there to represent the public and ask the questions that we want asked and not worry about who it offends.

In the upcoming Summer Olympics that will be held in Beijing, China, it will be fascinating to see how the government there will attempt to control the media.

When the Olympics are held, it is a time when the host nation can spotlight itself to the world.

In most cases, that is not a big deal, but China is different. For all the talk about how the country is becoming more open, the government still tramples its citizens' rights.

Recently, the government evicted people living in low-income apartments and tore their homes down as part of attempts to beautify their country for the coming games.

This was reported by multiple news organizations here in the United States, including CNN. However, the big question should be whether it was reported in China. Though I don't know for sure, my guess is 'no.'

The bottom line is we have a lot to be grateful for in America. Though we all take our freedom for granted at times, we should at least stop and ponder this fact sometime this weekend.

We better be careful not to take it too much for granted. Because if we do, we might wake up one day and find that it is gone.