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This week Sandy and our two dogs will put on red, white, and blue and walk in our Castle Heights annual Fourth of July parade. My mom who lives down the street, and is disabled, will sit on her front porch swing to watch the 300 or so of our neighbors pass by her flag-lined yard. It makes our hearts sing to celebrate America with friends of all political stripe Libertarians, Republicans, Independents, Democrats and Green Party folks.

For one brief moment we will be reminded of our shared destiny while together we eat hot dogs and homemade ice cream at the Castle Heights Circle.

Ive noticed over the years at these important moments that speakers will often give thanks and appreciation to our men and women in uniform across the country and the world. This is certainly appropriate. But Ive also wondered why we rarely mention other patriots who are serving in non-military roles. They too protect our freedom, advance democracy and contribute essential to the development of our country.

Consider the role that school teachers, judges, city council members, police officers, fire-fighters, Peace Corp workers, foreign service officers and others play in preserving our freedom and advancing democracy. Occasionally, there will be a nod to one group of these dedicated public servants who are necessary to the health and well-being of our civil society. But rarely, if ever, have I heard thanks given to our journalists for the paramount role they play.

Wait, did I just write journalists? Do journalists have as important a role in our democracy as that of soldiers? Are journalists patriots? Are they just as important as our elected representatives? A recent Pew survey poll (March 13-27) suggests that some Americans would find an affirmative answer to these questions to be preposterous. The study indicates that Democrats and Republicans, who already tend to place their trust in different news sources and rely on different outlets for political news, now disagree more than ever on a fundamental issue of the news medias role in society: whether news organizations criticism of political leaders primarily keeps them from doing things they shouldnt or keeps them from doing their job.

Anyone want to guess which side of the issue which party is on? The survey reveals that 9 in 10 Democrats believe that the news media keeps politicians in line by serving a watchdog role. Only 4 in 10 Republicans can affirm this. While there are likely multiple reasons why Americans are divided on this issue, I would suggest that history is on the side of those who see journalists having an essential role in our democratic process.

Let me offer 5 key responsibilities of journalists that probably cannot be done by anyone else.

While there is much to be discouraged today in regards to media empires that seem to have profit or political influence as their focus, on this Fourth of July, perhaps more than any in recent memory, we should we must remember the contributions by the great journalists of our day Bob Woodward, James Baldwin, Christiane Amanpour, Walter Cronkite, Margaret Bourke-White, Dan Rather, Carl Bernstein, Ed Bradley, Bill Moyers and Anna Quindlen who protect our freedom. And remember and be grateful for our local journalists who served Central Texas through the print, television and radio forums.

Thomas Jefferson felt so strongly about the role of journalists that he made the following well-known pronouncement: If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. God bless America and God bless our journalists.

Blake Burleson is an ordained Baptist minister and a faculty member in the Department of Religion at Baylor University. The fifth-generation Texan enjoys carpentry, painting, backpacking and travel. This column marks his first as a member of the Trib Board of Contributors.

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Blake Burleson, Board of Contributors: Journalism necessary part of American democracy - Waco Tribune-Herald