Dear editor,

If the meaning of America could be expressed in a single word, it would surely be "Liberty".

The Declaration of Independence declared Liberty to be an "unalienable right" with which we are endowed by our Creator. Our Constitution declares that it was established "...to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

The founders believed that Liberty belongs to the People individually and collectively — and that the enemy of Liberty is government with unbridled power. The great genius of our Constitution was the division of governmental power between three branches — the legislative (to enact laws), the executive (to carry out those laws), and the judicial (to interpret the laws and the Constitution) — a system of checks and balances designed to prevent the concentration of government power in one person.

Now, it seems, this Constitutional system may be in grave danger. Congress seems to have ceded much of its legislative power to the President. At the same time, the President seems to be on the verge of usurping the judicial power of the courts by simply ignoring unfavorable court rulings and attempting to remove the judges who have made them. If successful, these actions, in combination, would concentrate all legislative, executive and judicial power solely in the President. Our Constitutional Republic would be no more.

Where this will all lead remains to be seen. But Liberty is fragile and, once lost, would be difficult to regain. At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked "Well, Doctor, what form of Government have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?" to which he famously replied, "a Republic, if you can keep it."

That remains an open question.

-Alan Cooper, Rochelle