Fourth of July Keynote Speech Print E-mail
Written by Bob   
Speech by Bob Marrone, delivered at St. Paul's Church on the Fourth of July, 2009.

Mayor Young, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Banning. I am honored to be here on this special day, at this historic place, among such dignified and diverse people. Indeed, I am honored to be giving the keynote address on the birthday of this great country of ours; a country that is based on the dignity of each and every human being, and a diversity, that when we shine out brightest, doesn’t care where your from, what your religion is, or what color you happen to be. That is America.

I will begin first by saying that the thing I love most about our country is that it is the only country on earth, really, that is based on an idea.  America does not exist because of its culture….we are instead a land of many cultures.  America, while beautiful and bountiful, is not special because of where it sits in the middle of the Western Hemisphere…if fate had brought our forefathers together and placed upon them the same burdens and opportunities, but lets say… in central Asia…the flame of freedom from religious and monarchal tyranny would burn no less brightly.  Indeed, the very concept of nationalism, with its emphasis on parochial chauvinism and allegiance to time spend in the same place is, by its very definition, unAmerican.  

America, like Mr. Banning will state quite clearly later on, is a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people.  It’s not about the land, or its leaders, or even its institutions, which exist for the sole purpose of promoting one idea; that all men are created equal, and should be free to manage their own affairs.  America is based on an idea!  And it is an idea that ensures that we as a people will be what we wish to be now, and tomorrow.  It is based an idea that one person has no more value than any other, and neither ones parents, nor standing in the community, nor religion, nor class should give them favored treatment over another.  More importantly, on this day that we celebrate our independence, we cherish most the idea that we are free to govern our own affairs.

It is this love of these ideas, bound as they are by the glue of freedom, for which our forefathers risked their lives, their fortunes, and …to steal their words…their sacred honor, and authored the declaration of independence that we honor here today.

It was June of 1776 when Thomas Jefferson made the 300 mile trip to Philadelphia from his home in Virginia, to meet up with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston, to draft the document that would become the declaration of independence.  It actually followed the resolution prepared by Virginian Richard Henry Lee, that plainly started “that these thirteen colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent states”   The battles of Lexington and Concord had already been fought, and these men, as they assembled a Freedom Hall, were traitors.  To borrow a phrase from the movie Apollo 13, failure was not an option.  Indeed, as Franklin said at the time, “we shall hang together, or we most surely will hang apart.”

It is this love of freedom, and willingness to risk ones life, that makes this venue, a revolutionary period cemetery…some of the graves of which belong to those that made the ultimate sacrifice…so fitting.  It was and continues to be this unshakable belief in the ideas of freedom and equality that people are willing to die for.  And so here we are, at this special and historic place, remembering our country’s birth, and the sacrifices that made it so.

I want to end my remarks today by reading a letter, written by a civil war soldier, Sullivan Ballou, that captures better than I ever could, this willingness to die for the idea of freedom:

My very dear Sarah: The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days-perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing,-perfectly willing,-to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

Thee memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long, And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.  Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused on you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights…always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
Sullivan Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run.

The independence that we celebrate here today is a gift given to us from the courage of people like Sullivan Ballou, a courage born of the belief in the idea of freedom.