We Have A Legacy To Uphold
On this July 4th, it is important for us to remember what we are celebrating. Yes it is the birthday of our nation, a day for family, BBQs and fireworks. But the reason we have this birthday to celebrate is because of the undying belief of some remarkable people who lived before us. Our founding fathers and their supporters believed that there was a better way to live. An alternative to living under the absolute control of an oppressive regime.
"We believe that all men are created equal," is how they put it. That every man and woman has the right to choose their own path. We have the right to live free of fear, free of oppression and free to pursue what makes us happy. They believed this with such conviction that they were willing to lay down their lives to see it made real.
This is what we are celebrating today.
We are celebrating what those who came before us have given us. It is something extremely valuable; something to protect and nurture.
For generations after our country's founding, others have sacrificed and risked to imagine, invent and advance this great experiment. And, on some occasions, there are those who ran to the sound of the guns to defend it. Let us today, remember all the hard work, the blood, the sweat and the tears of the pioneers. Those who traveled across the nation from the East Coast to California. Lets us honor all the inventors who toiled in their laboratories, the creatives who imagined and the visionaries who guided the way: the Alexander Bells, the Benjamin Franklins, the Henry Fords, the Thomas Edisons, the Orville and Wilbur Wrights, the Abraham Lincolns, the John F. Kennedies, the Ralph Waldo Emersons, the Walt Disneys, the Walter Cronkites, the Thomas Jeffersons, and all the others whose names history did not record.
They all invested in this nation because they believed in it. It is our responsibility to not let their sacrifice and their hard work be in vain. We are an optimistic and pioneering people and we must do a better job of fixing our government, fixing our economy and mending our divides not for our children but for our ancestors. We can not let them down.
Enough pointing fingers and enough blaming others for our situation. It is not about government's responsibility or a corporation's responsibility or Republicans or Democrats. It is OUR responsibility - we the people.
Those who came before us, all those who made this nation great, took responsibility to do something. Now it's our turn.
Wishing everyone a very happy Independence Day.
