Of all the rights we have as Americans, the Founders put Freedom of Speech first for a reason. It’s the most powerful freedom we have, and the one we take for granted the most. They knew liberty wouldn’t last without it.

Imagine if we had no Independence Day to celebrate. Suppose we’d never broken from the British Empire. If we’d stayed on that path, we’d be making over 50,000 arrests every year for speech-related crimes.

That’s not hypothetical. In the United Kingdom today, more than 30 people are arrested each day for what they say — more than 20,000 Brits every single year. For online posts, memes, jokes, and opinions. They have no true First Amendment. No constitutional protection. Speech is licensed, heavily regulated, and the government revokes it the second officials interpret it as an offense.

I’ve been writing for the Rapid City Post for four months now, and it’s been a privilege. I get to use my Freedom of Speech, hand in hand with RCP, to reach people across South Dakota. I’m grateful for the platform — and for the feedback, all of it.

Even the negative kind. I don’t usually get “in the weeds” with my hate-squad, but I don’t mind them. The truth is, haters are dedicated readers. They’re engaged. They care enough to write back. On social media, it’s the haters who drive engagement and bring even more attention to the controversial things I sometimes write.

Now picture the alternative. In a different reality, I’d be paid to write for some quasi-independent but actually government-sponsored outlet. And those of you who spoke out against me each week? You’d be rounded up. Re-education camps if you were lucky. Something worse if you weren’t. Not just you, but sometimes your families as well.

Sounds radical. But that’s reality for millions of people right now. There are countries where a letter to the editor means losing your job, where a Facebook post means prison, where criticizing the wrong official means disappearing. I’d tell you to ask people in North Korea, but even communication with them is regulated by their government.

We fight like hell in this country. In person, in print, and online. We call each other names. We cancel celebrities over one off-color comment. We argue over everything from gas stoves to school boards to the Strait of Hormuz.

That’s not a societal failing. It’s the hallmark of being American.

The First Amendment doesn’t exist to protect popular speech. It exists to protect the speech you hate. Mine. Yours. The guy who emails me in ALL CAPS. The woman in the red hat who says I tilt so far left I’m falling over one week, and the guy with purple hair calling me a fascist the next.

If we were all forced to agree, we wouldn’t need the right in the first place. The First Amendment exists because disagreement is healthy in a civil society.

This July 4th before the fireworks, remember what we’re actually celebrating. Not just independence from a king. We’re celebrating our independence to speak, and the documents that protect it. To write. To disagree. To be wrong in public and not go to jail for it.

That freedom was bought once by men and women who stood up to an empire. It’s still being paid for by the men and women in uniform today. We keep it alive by using it daily. We keep it alive because right behind the First Amendment; the Second Amendment exists to keep it and the other Amendments safe.

For all our differences, that’s one blessing we still share. That’s what makes us uniquely and inherently American. That’s what Independence Day means.

Happy 250th Birthday America.

Happy Fourth of July.

Collin Duprel is a guest columnist for the Rapid City Post. Opinions expressed may not necessarily represent the views of the Rapid City Post, its affiliates, or advertisers.