Our Wonderful and utterly Fragile Experiment continues while the Wolves scratch at the door.

Our Nation's Founders worried that political violence by the few could stifle the voices and dreams of the many.

By Greg Rabidoux

As we edge closer to blowing out the candles on our nation's 250th birthday anniversary, we are, still, very much a work in progress.

"The Great Experiment" as the beginning or our nation was so aptly called, is, still, very much an experiment. We are still trying to see if is possible. To see if you can take very different people, with different ideas, values, beliefs, fears, passions, love, and yes, hate, and somehow, through guaranteed freedoms like speech, religion, assembly, and equality, it will turn out okay in the end. To see if together, we are better than any of our separate parts. To see if, somehow through the beauty, power, and majesty of an open and free marketplace of ideas we are all enriched, whether we win or lose. To see if we can walk away knowing that tomorrow is another day. Another chance to make your voice be the one that stands out, the one that wins that day. The very act of talking through our differences, debating, and then moving forward together in peace, is proof of just how good that humanity can be. How wonderful yet fragile our system is and always has been.

Our Founders believed that the system of governance they created would serve as both a sturdy and enduring structure to preserve and protect these and other freedoms we all cherish. To believe or not believe. To pray or not to pray. To think for yourself. To express your deepest held beliefs and thoughts. To stand alone. To join others who are likeminded. To help shape the house of democracy we all live under.

But despite their courage and their optimism at "The Great Experiment" they were creating, and despite their hope they were leaving something precious to all who followed, they too, struggled with fear.

They knew that men were no angels. They knew that jealousy, fear, insecurity, anger, and hatred, the dark side of men and women, was like a rapacious wolf scratching at the door of our new democracy, our new home. Always there, lurking, waiting, ready to invade if we ever became careless or reckless. They feared that if we, as a new nation, left the door open to these dark depravities, even for a moment, then the wolf would enter. And soon after, their, and now our, political experiment, our house, would come toppling down. Buried under a rubble of blind hatred and destructive violence.

Open societies such as ours depend on good faith and good will. Faith in our way of life and the will to be bigger than the small and destructive thoughts and impulses that so often plague us as we go about our day. To rise above our own dark impulses as we lead our life. And "back in the day" there sure wasn't the utter dominance of social media. We didn't know everything that everyone was thinking and feeling at every moment. The good. The bad. And everything in between.

But there's no turning the evolutionary or techno clock back, is there? So, we move forward. But so long as we, people of wildly different beliefs, values, passions, loves, hates, and dreams, still choose to live under this one roof of democracy, something must change.

Because not everyone who disagrees with you or embraces different beliefs is evil. And whatever you choose to say or do in a free, open society as ours, remains your choice. And while all choices come with consequences, the very assumption that underlies our "Great Experiment" is that no one should ever die because of what they think or say. In fact, that right is enshrined in the blueprint of our shared home. It is something we forget at our own, collective peril. Because there are always wolves nearby wanting to come inside. And if they do, we only have each other to blame.

Greg Rabidoux is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and screenplay writer.