We are still fighting for freedom.

It’s easy to rest on what has come before us.

And what a history. We are the land of the free because of the brave, a bravery that stood in 1773 when tyranny taxed us beyond toleration and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

When hostile forces came, bravery met them in the fields of resistance and resolve, prompting Emerson to write “Their flag unfurled to April’s breeze here once the embattled farmer stood and fired the shot heard round the world.”

Courage stood as George Washington in winter’s bitter hold crossed the Delaware not once, but twice, to embed in the soil and soul of America victory that wins liberty.

Independence was buried with full military honor in the person of Harriet Tubman, a self-taught escaped slave who led 300 others to freedom and who served the Union Army as cook and nurse, and at the risk of her own life, as spy and guide.

Freedom was voiced in the dream of a day when black boys and black girls would join hands with white boys and white girls as brothers and sisters.

Liberty took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.

History is still being written. You author the tales, you are forefront in the casting, you are the names listed as the credits roll.

Every time you demonstrate how technology supports human thriving, you contend for freedom.

Every time you push through when others quit, you fight for the human rights of becoming more.

Every time you invest in the best for an employee, you rewrite the course of possibility.

Every time you call out abusive leadership, wasteful spending, hurtful policies, and violation of liberties, you cross the Potomac of revolution.

The headlines cast doubt about your work. Ignorance can never hold back innovation.

Innovation is the path of inalienable rights.

When the fireworks boom above you tonight, they light upon your heroic drive.

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