I think the final segment, after honoring 100-year old veteran Capt. Royce Williams with the Congressional Medal of Honor, was the best part of the speech.
I found nothing in this final segment disagreeable.
Of course, that means
YOU probably
HATED it:
Two hundred fifty years is a long time in the life of a nation, but in another sense it is a mere moment in the eye of history. Two of the gentlemen we met in the gallery this evening took their first breaths one century ago. One hundred years before that, on July 4, 1826, the author of the Declaration of Independence, brilliant Thomas Jefferson, drew his last breath.
Just a single long human life span separates the giants who declared and won our independence from the heroes who stand among us tonight. Everything our nation has done and everything we’ve achieved has been the work of those few great lifetimes. Those brief chapters Americans built this nation from, 13 humble colonies, into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom, the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history.
Americans ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent. We carved through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous Wild West. From empty marshes and wide open plains, we raised up the world’s greatest cities. Together, we mastered the world’s mightiest industries and shattered histories, monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, communism, oppression and terror.
Americans lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel, and then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride. We wired the globe with our ingenuity, we captivated the planet with American culture, and now we are pioneering the next great American breakthroughs that will change the entire world.
All of this and so much more is the enduring legacy, unmatched glory, of the hard-working patriots who built and defended this country and who still carry the hopes and freedoms on all of humanity’s backs. For years, they were forgotten, betrayed and cast aside, but that great betrayal is over, and they will never be forgotten again. Because when the world needs courage, daring, vision and inspiration, it is still turning to America, and when God needs a nation to work his miracles, he knows exactly who to ask.
There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome, no frontier too vast for us to conquer, no dream too bold for us to chase, no horizon too distant for us to claim. For our destiny is written by the hand of providence, and these first 250 years were just the beginning. From the rugged border towns of Texas to the heartland villages of Michigan, from the sun-kissed shores of Florida to the endless fields of the Dakotas, and from the historic streets of Philadelphia to right here in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., the golden age of America is upon us.
The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues, because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
