The following video was released by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Independence Day, July 4th, 2013. It mixes wonderful imagery of what has made our nation great throughout the years, along with inspirational quotes from speeches made by the late, great president Ronald Reagan.
Definitely worth giving a second look at …
Transcript of Reagan’s words:
“America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity. My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there’s one impression I carry with me it is this: that the things that unite us – these things far outweigh what little divides us.”
The speeches used to create this video involve Reagan’s address to the nation on Independence Day of 1986, as well as his farewell address to the nation.
Both of those speeches are a tremendous reminder of what it was like to have a President who actually loved his country and simply wanted to make it better, as opposed to those who would have it fundamentally changed and divided.
Reagan also took the time during his Independence Day speech to remind Americans of the history that liberals seem so eager to forget:
Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. “We must all hang together,” Benjamin Franklin said, “or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.” And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom.
For just a moment, let us listen to the words again: “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.” Last night when we rededicated Miss Liberty and relit her torch, we reflected on all the millions who came here in search of the dream of freedom inaugurated in Independence Hall. We reflected, too, on their courage in coming great distances and settling in a foreign land and then passing on to their children and their children’s children the hope symbolized in this statue here just behind us: the hope that is America. It is a hope that someday every people and every nation of the world will know the blessings of liberty.
Now however, we have a president who no longer wants ‘every nation of the world’ to ‘know the blessings of liberty,’ but a president who’d rather apologize for any past flaws and lead the world from behind.
Comment: What did you think of this Independence Day video? What do you think of the contrast between Reagan and Obama? Who was the better President in your eyes? Share your thoughts below.
