No other date on the calendar more potently symbolizes all that our nation stands for than the Fourth of July.

Even talking about change can be threatening to entrenched interests...Careers in the Pentagon, the board room, or the halls of Congress are not advanced by creating the disruptions that go with real change, so there are very few voices willing to speak up for the future and move beyond rhetoric to make serious choices.

I am particularly disturbed that our country is the largest financial supporter of an organization that not only wastes a lot of our money but also seems to be increasingly anti-American in its policies and conduct.

We should start by allowing drilling in Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge. It can provide billions of barrels of recoverable oil and trillions of cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

The challenge we have in the war on terrorism is looking around for those pieces that matter and trying to fit them together.

Now, forty years after his passing, Winston Churchill is still quoted, read, revered, and referred to as much, if not more, than when he was alive.

In sum, we took energy for granted, assuming when we flipped the switch, the lights would go on and assuming that there would always be plenty of cheap fuel for our vehicles.