This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"We live in an age of trial – what we will be the consequences, we know not."

— John Adams

We are approaching Independence Day, a day when a group of "unruly frontiersmen" declared that they would be free. And not just free from "any" monarch, but one who also happened to control the greatest military power on earth.

A rock-solid belief in the freedoms they were fighting for guided those founding fathers and mothers. Those early rebels knew they were committing treason against a powerful government, but stood secure in their commitment to the cause. Treason was a crime punishable by death, often in gruesome ways, but those early founders were compelled by a belief in unalienable rights and liberty.

They loved, fought and died for this country. So have many more since 1776, in the Civil War, the World Wars, the Vietnam and Korean conflicts and today's fighting in the Middle East. These men and women, "who more than self their country loved" fought for an ideal. They fought for freedom.

I've been thinking a lot lately about 29-year-old Lt. Colonel Robert "Bull" Wolverton. He was the commanding officer of a battalion of paratroopers that were being sent to support D-Day operations in Normandy, France. In the early morning hours of that fateful day, he gathered his men and asked them to pray with him, telling them he was "not a religious man" but inclined to prayer that morning anyway. He asked his men to get on their knees and not look down, but to raise their faces to the sky so that they could see God.

He prayed:

"God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy.

We do not join battle afraid.

We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that,

if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.

We do not know or seek what our fate will be.

We ask only this,

that if die we must,

that we die as men would die,

without complaining,

without pleading

and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.

Oh Lord, protect our loved ones

and be near us in the fire ahead

and with us now as we pray to you."

After his prayer, the men observed two minutes of silence and then the colonel ordered, "Move out." Within a few hours, he was dead.

Lt. Colonel Wolverton died as did soldiers in the Revolutionary War, believing that he had done his best for what he believed was right.

The Declaration of Independence affected a change in principles, not just a change in laws. For over 200 years, the United States of America has been a beacon of freedom and opportunity, shining light in dark places, championing the oppressed and standing for all that is good and right in the world.

If you listen to pundits and many politicians, we are a deeply divided country. There is so much ugliness. So much evil. But there is also goodness and beauty.

I love the story Mr. Rogers used to tell of being a frightened child and his mother soothing him by telling him to "look for the helpers." They are everywhere. Look! And you will see them too.

I believe in this country and the richness of its foundation on principles of freedom and unalienable rights. I believe in the good people of this country and their desire to make the world a better place. I believe there are solutions to be had when people come together on behalf of a greater good. I believe in "We the people." I believe that together, we can return this country to its spot as the shining city on the hill.

This weekend as we celebrate Independence Day, I am committed to looking for the good and beautiful. Will you join me?

Holly Richardson loves this country and is glad to know so many good people trying to do good in the world.