July:  the month for celebrating independence.  Yesterday, July 1, Canada celebrated its Independence Day.  in two days, the U.S. will celebrate its Independence Day.  And on July 14, France will remember Bastille Day, its Independence Day.

    As I contemplate America's independence day, however, I am filled with fear and trepidation.  A U.S. Supreme Court decision yesterday leads me to conclude that, in the same way that Germany in 1932 made Adolf Hitler chancellor without shedding a drop of blood, so does America stand on the cusp of anointing and creating a dictator through entirely democratic means.  It's enormously frightening.

    And it reminds me of former president Richard Nixon's statement, which he made at the height of the debacle of Watergate, that, "If the president does it, it's not illegal."

    From a political standpoint, more unnerving words have rarely been said.

    To every would be dictator:  we're free, yes, but we're not free to be free.