  Happy Fourth of July!  July 1, 2011 - Stephen Browne
Sometimes it takes a stranger to tell you things about yourself
you don't notice, anymore than a fish notices the water.
Chesterton was one of those foreigners who visited our country
and told us things about ourselves we might never have thought
of.  Another was a French aristocrat on a tour of America, whose
justification I believe was originally to study our prison
system, though nobody remembers that anymore. What they remember
is what Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) saw in America, and he
saw very deeply indeed.  Tocqueville saw the virtues of America,
“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened
than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her
faults.”  But he also saw the flaws in our country that might
yet destroy us as a nation.  There is a story that de
Tocqueville had an "American moment" after sitting in on a New
England town hall meeting. What he saw was not inspiring, not at
first. The subjects discussed were