Independence Day

We are going through a lot right now.  We are facing a global pandemic.  We are confronting our nation's own original sin and internal demons.  We are soul-searching and having difficult conversations.  We are a nation of immigrants who have not lived up to our potential as a "shining city on a hill;" we have not put into practice the ideals we put onto paper - that ALL men are created equal with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  

As we celebrate our nation's 244th birthday, we are at a crucial moment as we are in the midst of a consequential election year, one in which we are deciding who we are and who we want to be.  

Our founders had the vision and foresight to understand that, if this nation were to outlive them, we would face changes and challenges, not only challenges they could see but not rectify within their lifetimes, but changes beyond what they could see.  

There are myriad reasons they intentionally made the legislative branch, the People, the strongest of the three branches and gave us a changeable Constitution.  If our rights are to be well-guarded, we have an imperative responsibility to participate in our democracy.  

We are all, collectively, the architects of our own liberty.  We are one nation, indivisible, and until we are willing to embody that notion, divisions seem inevitable.  

My hope - our hope as I see it - lies in internalizing and embodying those self-evident truths and inalienable rights first laid out in our Declaration of Independence.