Last week we mentioned in this space the title of the Manhasset High School 1998 Yearbook--Make Waves . As Independence Day, the 4th of July, is hard upon us we gave some thought this week to those great wave makers, the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. The whole subject of liberty, freedom and independence is in the forefront of the news this Independence Day as the American President visits China, where the words seem to have very different meanings. Here below are a few of our favorite words on the topic.

Jefferson's Declaration of Independence is a practical document for the use of practical men. It is not a thesis for philosophers, but a whip for tyrants; it is not a theory of government, but a program of action.

Woodrow Wilson, 1911

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.

Clarence Darrow, 1920

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten: that there is a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.

Learned Hand, 1944.

Poverty curtails indivisual freedom. So do illiteracy, prejudice, lack of education, inability to obtain the basic needs of life.

Hubert Humphrey, 1964.

Have a Happy Independence Day.

EFB