By STEVE KING

Some thoughts – some opinions, some passionate, meaningful words of wisdom – stand the test of time.

So before we put the Fourth of July – the day to celebrate the freedom that serves as the foundation for our country — into the rear-view mirror for another year and move on to other things, we need to reflect on some famous words that may be even more important – more pertinent — now than they were when they were first uttered 57½ years ago.

“And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” John Kennedy said in his presidential inauguration speech.

What Kennedy was asking Americans to do on a bitterly cold Jan. 20, 1961 – and what, on these very hot and humid days in early July 2018, we should be asking ourselves to do – is to check our egos at the door and find some middle ground so as to move the country forward.

What’s best for any of us individually can never be the goal as we wrestle with the biggest issues facing the country, including strengthening that freedom and making it work like it was meant to be by our forefathers – like what the young president was imploring people to do. Rather, the goal should be to find what’s best for America as a whole.

And when we do – or at least when we move as close to it as we’ll ever get – then all of us can receive a big heaping helping of the freedom we so desire.

It’s never going to be perfect, with everybody getting equal portions. It doesn’t work that way. It can’t. There are too may moving parts for that to happen. This is not an exact science by any means.

But to get to that good place, none of us can be selfish. We can’t think of “I.” It has to be “we.”

We all have to give up something to get something for the common good to be … well, more than just common.

That’s what John Kennedy was talking about. If only we could talk about that now.