"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These are perhaps the most important words ever written in the history of humankind. And for 233 years, the United States of America has been more than a nation; it has been a great social experiment dedicated to finding out if the principle expressed in that sentence can be the foundation of a stable and prosperous society.
This experiment in liberty runs counter to the instincts of humankind and the traditions of our cultures. For most of human existence, it has been the group, not the individual, that has decided when people have sex and with whom, which types of recreation are acceptable and which are taboo, what constitutes acceptable public speech and behavior, etc. Those whose personal choices went against the local arbiters of morality - the rabbi, the priest, the baron or lord or city council - were subject to official punishment and sanction under the law (in addition to social ostracism).
Nothing will ever stop humans from ostracizing those they don't like; but America has largely done away with official curbs on certain types of personal behavior. Although in practice there are many fuzzy lines (Is it my right to scream "fuck" in public?), the basic idea is that people are free to do anything that does not directly harm anyone else. So far, this principle has served us well.
Of course there are holes in our liberty. The transition from conservative traditionalism to individualistic modernism had to happen in fits and starts. There was a time when I wasn't free to marry a black woman, or have gay sex, or drink a beer, etc. But as people began to see that liberty was pretty safe - society hasn't yet collapsed from beer, gay sex, or racial intermarriage - we gradually became less and less afraid of closing the remaining holes in our liberty.
As I see it, two big holes remain (unless you count seat-belt laws). Those are:
1) I am still not free to legally marry another man.
2) I am still not free to smoke marijuana (a nonaddictive, non-deadly drug) in the privacy of my home.
Many Americans have tried to close these gaps in the past, but the forces of traditionalism have so far proven too strong to overcome when it came to gay marriage and marijuana. But the tide may finally, finally be turning. In California, marijuana is now decriminalized. And in Vermont, the legislature has just voted to allow gay marriage. In time, Americans will see that neither marijuana nor gay marriage has destroyed destroyed their society or decreased their quality of life, and will look back on these steps as being inevitable.
But the progress of human liberty is never inevitable. Jefferson, the man who wrote that most important sentence ever, also remarked that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." And so we must continue the fight; marijuana is sill criminal in most states, and gay marriage is still illegal. The tide has turned, but the work is not yet done.
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