As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday this week may\nwe remember to \u201cpledge ourselves to each other, and to the cause of human\nfreedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world\u201d as\ndescribed by President Ronald Reagan in his speech given July 4, 1986:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All through our history, our Presidents and leaders have spoken of national unity and warned us that the real obstacle to moving forward the boundaries of freedom, the only permanent danger to the hope that is America, comes from within. It’s easy enough to dismiss this as a kind of familiar exhortation. Yet the truth is that even two of our greatest Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once learned this lesson late in life. They’d worked so closely together in Philadelphia for independence. But once that was gained and a government was formed, something called partisan politics began to get in the way. After a bitter and divisive campaign, Jefferson defeated Adams for the Presidency in 1800. And the night before Jefferson’s inauguration, Adams slipped away to Boston, disappointed, brokenhearted, and bitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\nyears their estrangement lasted. But then when both had retired, Jefferson at\n68 to Monticello and Adams at 76 to Quincy, they began through their letters to\nspeak again to each other. Letters that discussed almost every conceivable\nsubject: gardening, horseback riding, even sneezing as a cure for hiccups; but\nother subjects as well: the loss of loved ones, the mystery of grief and\nsorrow, the importance of religion, and of course the last thoughts, the final\nhopes of two old men, two great patriarchs, for the country that they had\nhelped to found and loved so deeply. “It carries me back,” Jefferson wrote\nabout correspondence with his cosigner of the Declaration of Independence, “to\nthe times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in\nthe same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to\nself-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead\nthreatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless . . . we rowed through the\nstorm with heart and hand . . . .” It was their last gift to us, this lesson\nin brotherhood, in tolerance for each other, this insight into America’s\nstrength as a nation. And when both died on the same day within hours of each\nother, that date was July 4th, 50 years exactly after that first gift to us,\nthe Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My\nfellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great\nAmericans of our past. Believe me, if there’s one impression I carry with me\nafter the privilege of holding for 5 1\/2 years the office held by Adams and\nJefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us — America’s\npast of which we’re so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the\nworld and this much-loved country — these things far outweigh what little\ndivides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation\nunder God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican\nand Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through\nwhatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause\nof human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My fellow Americans, we’re known around the world as a confident and a happy people. Tonight there’s much to celebrate and many blessings to be grateful for. So while it’s good to talk about serious things, it’s just as important and just as American to have some fun. Now, let’s have some fun — let the celebration begin!” (end of speech)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope all of you have a fabulous Fourth of July celebration this week. I will be back to blog again on Sunday night July 6th so until then – Happy Birthday America!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n