Even amidst all the encroachments of big government, America is still one of the freer places on Earth. In the special “What’s Great About America”- aired this past Independence Day weekend – libertarian John Stossel surveys wide swaths of America to find out just what is so great about the United States.

The most important part for me was Stossel’s attempts to find out why people come here in the first place. In the special, he talks to many people who point to the basic rights we enjoy- freedom of speech, freedom of religion- as the draw for moving here. For others, it’s the wide open business climate with relatively few bureaucratic hurdles to capitalize on their ideas that proves attractive. And yet for many more still, America simply represents an opportunity to make a better life for their families.

With all the battles that still need to be waged here on behalf of liberty, it’s refreshing to sometimes be reminded of why freedom is so important (and so rare) in the first place.