Remarks on the U.S.A Independence Day
Tonight we celebrate the 231 anniversary of the birth of the United States of America.
We have a reason to be especially happy this year as we just celebrated the visit of President George W. Bush the first of a sitting US President to Albania.
On July 1776 in Philadelphia representatives of the 13 states announced the independence of the United Sattes from Britain. This was revolutionزebellion and defiabce agaisnta legitimate sovereign.
The men in Congress gathered there that day knew it well and felt obliged to explain why they had taken such a decision. This they did eloquently in the declaration of Independence- a mere two pages of words, but words that have had a continuous effect over these past 231 years – not only in the history of my country but throughout the world. Its beauty continues to have a great relevance in the world today:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. נThat to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, נThat whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
The unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America
This declaration was not just a break with Britain, it was the founding new nation on a very revolutionary principle: that government derives its authority from the governed. It is not blood or kinship, race or religion that binds us Americans together as a nation. It is a commitment, generation after generation , to this revolutionary doctrine:
That we are all created equal and it if the right of free men and women- it is the duty of free men and women- to throw off tyranny and to cerate a government that guarantees us the rights of Life, liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.
As an American diplomat, living overseas amongst foreigners, I am frequently called n defend my countries’ policies, its principles and its actions both domestic and international.
As an American I know that we have not always live dup to our principles the shameful institution of slavery and racial segregation are among the most egregious examples.
I am proud that we have corrected our course time and again and have remained faithful to those founding principles these 231 years.
And when others criticize America, while recognizing we have stumbled, I still proudly say that no country in history has done more to promote the grand experiment in freedom and to defend it from tyranny and totalitarianism .
America I hope will always be a defender of liberty and an example form men and women throughout the world who hunger for it.
I hope that 231 years from now, throughout the world, Americans are still celebrating that revolutionary declaration that established once and for all the primacy of people over government.
