My Grandfather was born just 30-years after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.  That is how young we are as a nation yet 250 years of self governance sets the world record for such things.  Of, by and for the people is unique to America.

The youngest amongst us think two and a half centuries an eternity.  Those in my cohort know different.

We approach a time when a generation of men don’t know combat.  We approach a time where freedom is thought to be the norm.  We risk it all in that moment.  The barbarism of war can’t be dreamt away.  The hardness of men serves a purpose.  It’s what saves us from tyranny in its awfulness.

As good memories quiet our souls, the terrible gird our resolve.  Reality is the only instruction.  We ignore and reframe it at our own peril.

While we rightfully and joyfully celebrate today, let us not forget how we achieved what we have.  1.35 million have died in the name of the United States and on her behalf.  Still living today are roughly 6-million combat veterans, their experiences seared into their memories, awful burdens carried by them to protect us.

We live, flourish and thrive because of all of them.  The personal weight of carrying those terrible memories so the rest of us don’t have to is the ultimate price of freedom.  

While today we honor the dead and thank the living, most importantly, we warn the comfortable.  Freedom was anything but free in 1776 and its cost moving forward is ours to bear.

Thank you and may God bless America