When the bonds of tyranny are broken and a young country asserts itself with vigor, this independence is celebrated and cherished. Few would accuse our latter-day Fourth of July revelries as expressing a political slant

I have a friend who is convinced that the world has changed, and we humans have become entirely visual in everything we choose to consume. Therefore, no one will ever come to a symphony concert; opera perhaps, because the action unfolding on stage can be looked at.