Each year on July 4, we celebrate the birthday of our country. That is a time when it behooves each of us to think on the state of our beloved republic. In the year 1776, we were born by declaring our independence from a tyrant. In the twenty-first century, we created an empire and now mimic that tyrant in bullying the rest of the world, including the United Nations. We stand at the precipice and look down at an unknown future. As Thomas Paine once said, "These are times that try men's souls."

While enduring the heat of the scorching desert sun, it is always refreshing to drink at the fountain of great minds of the past. On May 3 of this year, we celebrated the 200th birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great American writer and poet. Among other things, he wrote the "Concord Hymn." (The "shot heard round the world" poem) Someone always recites it on the anniversary of the birth of our nation.

Instead of that one, I would like to look at another of his poems, that he simply entitled "Fable." Patriotism not only looks to the past, but also concerns itself with the present and future course of our republic.

A fable begs to be interpreted. I offer the following suggestion: The "mountain" is the United States of America, the "squirrel" is the United Nations, and the "nut" is the ongoing problem in Iraq. And now, the poem: