Let Freedom Ring

Today, the United States of America celebrates 241 years as an independent country. Our founding fathers did not want to be ruled with an iron fist. They did not want to be dictated to and looked down upon. They desired independence. Freedom.

Every year we celebrate that freedom, as we remember the struggle of our founding fathers who were revolutionaries and rebels. We celebrate and remember the loyalty and bravery of so many men and women who fought to defend freedom around the world. We honor the many soldiers who put the lives of others above their own.

On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty - designed by Frederic August Bartholdi’s and built by Gustave Eiffel - was dedicated in New York Harbor. Seventeen years later, “The New Colossus” poem, written by Emma Lazarus was cast onto the bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level as a reminder of the liberty offered in the United States of America.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-test to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Do we still embrace the same way of thinking? Are the tired, poor, huddled masses, homeless, and tempest-test still welcomed? Are we still a country - 241 years later - who longs to be a place of freedom and refuge to those in need, or have we become much like the country from which we fought to escape?

I believe every birthday, especially when you get up in years, should be a time of reflection and growth.

As Americans, what can we learn from our storied history? How can we grow?

Just as it started with a few men and woman in the 1700s, it can start with a few of us: Sons and Daughters of Liberty. We can make a huge impact on the world in which we live.

We can choose to not only live in the liberty given to us by the life and death and service of so many throughout history; but we can also choose to give that same liberty to the people in our world.

Love more. Hate less.

Include, encourage, embrace so that freedom truly can ring to all people regardless of ethnicity, color, creed, origin, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, or disability.

If we do that, then it can truly be a Happy Birthday, indeed!

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