America has its Founding Fathers—and I have my mother and father. Like their republican forbearers, like the men my fellow citizens revere, like the words and deeds of Paul Revere, my parents are ready to sound the alarm and answer the call of duty: to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Should that day come, I hope I will neither forsake my conscience nor my country; that I will emulate a great lady of the Lone Star State and a good man—a righteous soul—who is my lodestar; that what my parents taught me, to be true to what I say and to live a life of meaning, will allow me to rise up and live out the true meaning of this nation’s creed; that there is a world to come, so long as I do not try to gain the whole world by losing my soul; that I will not shame my parents—and I will not stain the graves of patriots—with an act of dishonor.
Such is my definition of Independence Day.
Such is my Declaration of Mutual Dependence, because America cannot endure half-ignorant and half-insolent. The nation cannot exist if honor is a foreign word and duty is the enemy of domestic tranquillity. No truth is more self-evident—and no prophecy is more false until we make it true—than what we see after it is too late to change the course of history.
If we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we must be aware of the present dangers to our future. We must be as astute as Alexander Hamilton, while I must be as attentive as George Hamilton—and Alana Stewart.
I am blessed to have the love of my parents. I am also fortunate to have the chance to secure the blessings of liberty.
Every American has the same opportunity.
We honor America by seizing that opportunity, because we are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.