07/04/2026
Today the United States of America celebrates 250 years of independence.
On July 4 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously ratified the Declaration of Independence.
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman wrote it. Published on July 6 in The Pennsylvania Evening Post. King George III formally acknowledged the Declaration on October 31, 1776 during an address to Parliament.
The document starts with a preamble:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
These men were not perfect people. Nevertheless, they had good and noble ideas, even when they did not live up to them.
The United States of America was referred to by many at the time as “The Great Experiment”.
George Washington once wrote about the nation being "staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people" in his First Inaugural Address in 1789.
Abraham Lincoln noted during an 1861 address to Congress that the final step for the country was its "successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it".
In his 1835 work Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that "civilized man" was attempting to construct society upon a new basis, an experiment for which the world was unprepared.
When asked what the Founding Fathers had created at the close of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin famously replied, "A republic, if you can keep it".
Many of these same men would later draft The Constitution, which still stands as the basic governing document of this nation. A living document meant to adapt to times and people that they could not foresee, but that they foresaw a need to be prepared for.
250 years later this nation has endured several wars, multiple economic recessions, It has put men on the moon, pioneered automotive, medical and other sciences.
We are still not a perfect union, but we should strive for every day to be “more perfect” than the one before it.
This year we have seen global attention from the World Cup, that attention has brought international visitors and travelers who are seeing firsthand the good that this country has to offer.
We stand today polarized and divided by politics, opinion and at times our own internal cultures.
Today I urge you all to take a break from tribalism, from pessimism, from polarization, from all the things that divide us and focus on the things that unite us.
Reflect on the beauty of The Appalachian Mountains, The Rockys, the Mississippi River, our national parks, the great plains.
Give thanks for the achievements made by the myriad people of the great American melting pot, the men and women who laid down their lives in defense of this nation. All Of It.
Take a break, and look at all that has been made and done with less than we have right now.
Theodore Roosevelt once said “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
Go on and eat too many hot dogs, drink a few more beverages, wear some red white and blue, watch that one Uncle come close to losing a finger, and remember that a nation only turns 250 once, and today you’re here to bear witness.
It took two and a half centuries of blood, sweat, tears and grit to get this far. It’s going to take even more to make the bad things better and keep the good ones on track if even hope to see another 250.
`Murica. F**k Yea!
