Thomas Paine, one of the firebrands who sparked the American Revolution, saw the continental uprising as America’s chance to free herself from the trans-Atlantic tether of British dominion, and as an opportunity to begin the world anew. But when the colonial soldiers faltered under the growing apprehension that the British would crush their rebellion and have their heads, Paine also saw the possibility of his compatriots abandoning the cause of self-determination and becoming, once again, servile subjects of His Majesty the King.

Never faint of heart, Thomas Paine challenged his countrymen’s hesitation. He encouraged them to brave their fears and resist the urge to surrender. He passionately advocated revolution and independence, and refused to consider the possibility of reconciliation with a government ruled by tyrants. In support of his appeals, he presented a voluminous catalog of injustices. Among them were taxation without representation, the embargo of free trade, the massacre at Boston, and the Sugar, Stamp and Quartering Acts that the mother country had forced upon the colonies.

Paine exhorted his fellow colonists to remain mindful of those abuses and to stand firm for freedom: “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”

Emboldened by Paine’s exhortation, the colonial soldiers recovered their confidence and fought on to defeat the British Redcoats. After that victory, our founding fathers began the world anew. They authored the Declaration of Independence that built a home for the fugitive, “a sanctuary wherein the rights of man were recognized as self-evident and protected as sovereign and inviolable.” A new world indeed!

Since July 4, 1776, the date of our freedom’s birth, each succeeding generation of Americans has advanced us forward to this coming July 4. That progression is as it ought to be, for each generation of us is indebted to pass on to our posterity the freedom that was handed on to us. Recently, however, here in the cradle of freedom’s birth, our enthusiasm for passing on its legacy has ebbed to a level just shy of ho-hum. Many young Americans seem to think our present way of life is the way things have always been. This misguided view of past and present, of cause and effect, is the consequence of the notion that knowledge of our history is optional, not necessary.

As we lose more and more connections to our past, we lose more and more interest in the origins of our freedom. Our freedom may be a treasure, but it’s hard to appreciate a treasure one doesn’t know anything about. We know too little about the ruthless cruelty of the government prior to the success of our rebellion. We know too little about the magnificent heroes of the American Revolution, who risked everything – including the last full measure of freedom – to wrest the freedom of mankind from the those who believed in kings’ hereditary right to rule. And we know too little about the founding character of our colonial predecessors – that is, about our ancestral determination to succeed as an independent nation of self-reliant people.

Those of us who enjoy the liberties our ancestors fought for rarely consider the effort it took to bring them about. Such is the attitude of indifference that the great invention of our freedom is met with today. We enjoy the liberty it gives us to chart the course of our own pursuit of happiness, but the number of us who interest ourselves in the nuts and bolts of what makes freedom work is dangerously diminished.

If we scrapped the habit of playing down the success we have made of our freedom, it would become clear that America is a force for good in the world, that we are an accomplished people, that we yet cherish and champion the rights of man, and that, just as the cost to gain freedom was worth the price, the price to keep freedom is worth the cost.