It’s not the military might that makes our country great. For in a democracy like ours a military only exists to protect our freedom to think and act without undue restraint. No, there’s something more than tanks and fighter jets that define our greatness. Instead, it is the sum of us, a diverse people, working and living together with the shared heritage of desiring the freedom from fear, the freedom from want, the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion — or no religion at all. That is what truly makes America great; our great liberal democracy; a democracy worth living for and if need be, worth dying for to defend her from tyrants from within as well as from without.
And it isn’t divisiveness that strengthens us but indeed undercuts us as a people. It is the desire to contribute from the individual to the entirety of the nation. It is the desire to be bigger than something beyond oneself. Patriotism is not bombastic, nor arrogant nor vulgar. True patriotism is instead quiet and humble. And it is a love of our country — all of it, a country that belongs to all of us, from the descendants of the Mayflower to the newest arrival; from California to the New York island; from the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters. Indeed, America is more than 40 percent of us. As Woody said, this land was made for you and me.
Happy Independence Day, everyone.