July 4, 1776, a group of men, sweltering in the heat of Philadelphia in the summer, complete a document. It is unlike any other document ever written. It separates what hitherto have been colonies from their colonizer; it creates a nation from nothing but a tax revolt and an idea. The idea is one so profound that it’s still reverberating into our time. Can humans govern themselves, justly and rationally?
These men wrote down, for the first time the founding ideals of what they would base their government on. They made the astounding revelation that all men are created equal, and that they are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A few years later, they crafted a Constitution, which enumerated the powers of the government, describing in detail exactly what the limits were for those who would run our country. We are the first nation to do so, to set down in black and white what we believe and how we should conduct our governance.
In 1861 we fought a war to define just what a man was, and what the word “American” means. Today we understand that men, is a noun that constitutes all members of the species Homo sapiens; that it does not discriminate by color, creed, or sex. If you are a human, you should be free and allowed to pursue your life’s course as you will. Since then we have lit the world with the light from the shining city on the hill, always trying to free the oppressed.
Are we a perfect nation? No. Sadly, we are a nation of humans, with the frailty associated with that state. Our sins have been spread across the world, for all to see. Our reach has exceeded our grasp, but our heart is in the right place. We don’t occupy, we liberate. We build schools, not walls. We bring water, power, and light to those places where there isn’t any. We sacrifice our dearest blood and costliest treasure to ensure the freedom of humanity.
And so the sun rises on the 236th year of our republic, we have many accomplishments under our belt, but the road ahead leads through some dark times. Our nation, leveraged to the hilt, must find a way toward the promise of tomorrow. We need to make sure that the work of our Founders continues, that we live up to their aspirations, the dedication and sacrifices of generations past, and the responsibility of the us here in the present. We must ensure that ours is not the generation that squanders the gifts of freedom, so that our children can enjoy them in the future, and to that end defend our republic and the ideals which it was founded upon. So, the revolution continues, each generation entrusted to carry the flame, one step further down the path, lighting the way to tomorrow.
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