America is one of the greatest human accomplishments.
In 250 years, America grew from a collection of colonies into the world's largest economy, a constitutional republic that has remained remarkably strong, a scientific and industrial powerhouse fueled by risk-taking entrepreneurs and immigrants, and the primary source of many of the technologies, institutions, and cultural exports that define modernity.
America shapes aviation, computing, communication, global finance, internet, media, medicine, spaceflight, and higher education. America is the premier destination for people born elsewhere hoping for, and then building, a better future for themselves and their families.
Our history contains contradiction and failure alongside extraordinary achievement. The scale of our economic output, military capability, innovation, philanthropy, and enduring influence on the political, social, and technological development of the world shows America ranks among humanity's most consequential civilizational achievements.
We share a planet, surrounded by other great minds, cultures, and accomplishments, and yet, we stand apart from other nations because of our radical belief in self, fundamental freedoms1, and outsized ambition to shape a future not only for ourselves, but also for our fellow Americans we will never meet.
We have abundance beyond any country, beyond any time.
We owe nothing to our founders, our grandparents, or future generations. But this is precisely why we should choose to do hard things, strive for more, and remember where we came from.
We choose to owe them our best.
Now is the time to make tomorrow better than today.
Footnotes
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Freedom of thought, religion, love, privacy, and sanctity, speech, press, and criticism, movement, enterprise, and property, assembly, association, and petition, due process, and voting. ↩