Wednesday we celebrated the greatest day in our national history. Sound ridiculous? Not to John Adams, who in 1776 wrote to his wife, Abigail: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. ... It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” At least he got the pomp and parade part right.

During this election season, thousands of Americans are registering to vote and participating in the political process for the first time. Their energy and enthusiasm for political change could help renew public engagement with the issues of the day.

In our State College service center, there is a set of four nails from the Mount Eagle Church of Christ building. A member of our staff, who attends that church, placed them there as a reminder of the meeting house he attended nearly all of his life.

Among the many dark tidings for American conservatism, there is one genuine bright spot. Over the past five years, a group of young and unpredictable rightward-leaning writers has emerged on the scene.

When Barack Obama decided to throw off the constraints on campaign spending that go with the acceptance of public financing, he was rightly criticized for rigging the system in his own favor.

Do you immediately grab the On Centre section when the Centre Daily Times is delivered Monday through Thursday?

So all we know for sure is that something happened in Gloucester, Mass. What that something was depends on whom you believe.

WEYBRIDGE, Vt. — Last winter, which in Vermont is serious business, a gang of local teens — and a few people a little older — got a bright idea. The Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, famous as the summer home of Robert Frost between 1938 and 1963, stood empty. It struck them as just the place for a party.

“Cindy Unleashed” screamed the headline on the Drudge Report. Did Cindy McCain really go after Michelle Obama? Not exactly, but close enough. There was only one right answer to the question McCain was asked by Kate Snow on ABC’s “Good Morning America” this week about whether McCain was “insulted” by Obama’s comment some time ago that it was only with her husband’s run for president that she was “really proud” of her country. The right answer was the one Laura Bush gave: Leave Michelle Obama alone. Obama already has explained ad nauseam that she didn’t mean to say that she never had been proud of her country before.

Visit after visit to the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for her child’s treatment got Donna Ireland, of Philipsburg, thinking.