Happy Birthday, America! #394 By Hank Silverberg In 1787, as Ben Franklin was walking out of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powell asked him what kind of government we were getting. Franklin replied, "A republic, if we can keep it." Those words have come back into the public mind often over the last 250 years, and as we approach the big birthday celebration at the end of this coming week, it has become more than just a history lesson. (Liberty Bell, Courtesy of National Park Service) There will be celebrations in big cities and small towns across the country leading up to July 4th, but somehow those usually patriotic and uniting celebrations have seemed a bit sour this year. Why? Well, let's look at the Great American Fair that opened on the National Mall in D.C. this week. It was supposed to include boo...