Independence Day reminds us of our blessed foundations in liberty, and our constitutional guarantees to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.

We should also take time to celebrate another right we all share in a democratic and civil society: the ability to peacefully disagree.

Too often, it seems, we are eager to disagree but embrace such differences with added unfortunate flourishes such as character attacks, imagined motives, disrespectful declarations and zealous mischaracterizations.

We do ourselves a great disservice when we summarily discount an opposing or differing view with such relish. Our democracy, our marketplace of ideas, works best when a diversity of opinions are shared without fear of the focus being shifted to the person offering the opinion, rather than the idea itself.

Let’s not be afraid to challenge and test the opinions that bubble up over important issues of our time. But let’s also seek to keep our debate respectful and to stay mindful to not assign ill attributes to the person instead of the opinion.