Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.
~Abraham Lincoln in his 1862 address to Congress

It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless … we rowed through the storm with heart and hand.
~Thomas Jefferson in a later in life letter correspondence with John Adams, both his friend and political foe

The essence of America, that which really unites us, is not ethnicity or nationality or religion. It is an idea, and what an idea it is — that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going.
~Condoleezza Rice

It will make you adore your own country, it’s soil, it’s climate, it’s equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. My god! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy.
I confess I had no idea of it myself.
~Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Monroe – 1785

Much blood has been shed by Americans over the last 248 years to guarantee Life and Liberty for others, including citizens of other countries. If the price paid through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives has resulted in more happiness, why do we still see so much misery here and elsewhere?

Simply put, we can’t pursue happiness; it finds us, like God’s grace,  when we don’t deserve it.

Happiness certainly won’t be found in the ubiquitous fireworks that will be blown up today, or the food consumed, or the abundance of legal alcohol and cannabis.

Happiness will be present in a quiet moment of realization: we are truly blessed living in this incredible country, raising our children and grandchildren.

We need to work harder than ever to make it even better.

We will not be free until we stop allowing our unsatisfied appetites to dictate how we live our lives. Instead, true freedom is when we dedicate ourselves to preserving equality, justice and liberty for all future generations, everywhere.

Today we say a prayer of thanks to the Creator addressed in our country’s Declaration of Independence, that we may live in a forward-thinking spirit of gratitude and sacrifice.

For this we celebrate – the last best hope on earth.

(and below are the best fireworks of all…)

Text: Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Translation: Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ’s love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Lyrics:
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is,
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

So let us raise this melody together,
Beneath the stars that guide us through the night;
If we choose love, each storm we’ll learn to weather,
Until true peace and harmony we find,
This is our song, a hymn we raise together;
A dream of peace, uniting humankind.