Thousands of festive Americans gathered at Grand Lake to watch the fireworks display on Saturday.

Saturday was a chance to gaze in awe at spectacular pyrotechnics, of course. It was also a time to stop and reflect on the importance of democracy and the genius of the framers and their founding documents. On Sept. 17, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document that would be ratified two years later. George Washington, the convention's presiding president, James Madison, the Constitution's principal author, and other delegates then filed out of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. A woman approached the delegate from Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, and asked: "Well, doctor, what have we got - a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin paused. "A republic ... if you can keep it,"

he replied.