July 4th.

For the past few years on each 4th of July, I've posted the entire text of the Declaration of Independence for you to read.

This year I cannot in good conscience do that.

As Stephen Colbert said a few days ago:

I'm happy to say I love our country.

I love America.

I believe in my heart of hearts, our great country is the last, best hope for all mankind.

And what makes us great is what we believe in - "All men are created equal" [and] "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. "

But here's the problem with high ideals: you actually have to live up to them.

My reasons for posting The Declaration every year is to restate at least some of the ideals upon which this society was founded and built. There are a few others:

• Freedom of religion
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of the press
• Equal justice under the law

While it's obvious to anyone paying attention to our history that this nation has faltered many times in upholding these ideals, ideals to a more perfect union they still are. Pursuing them is all important to realizing a just society.

But each of these ideals (and that's not even an exhaustive list) have been under constant and increasing attack by the current administration and its enablers in the legislative and judiciary branches of government.

And so for that, I have a question for any right-leaning friends who may be reading this: How do the concentration camps on the border and the mistreatment of children in those camps conform to this from Ronald Reagan:

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.

Note: I could have used any number of other examples. It's just that separating children from their parents and then forcing some children to take care of other younger children while denying all of them soap is just the most recent disgusting example of GOP governance in what was once promised to be a shining city on a hill.

Happy 4th.