The Fourth of July is a day to celebrate the courage of the Founders and remind ourselves that Americans can continue to make a difference and put the country back on the right track — as they have done so many times before. They freed the slaves, gave women the vote and spread economic opportunity and liberty at home and abroad.
As French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint session of Congress last year about U.S. soldiers in World War II: “The children of my generation understood that those young Americans, 20 years old, were true heroes to whom they owed the fact that they were free people and not slaves. France will never forget the sacrifice of your children.”
America will continue to have its problems. It does not have a monopoly on wisdom. But its 232-year track record remains an enviable one that gives hope for the future and is worth celebrating.
“As French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint session of Congress last year about U.S. soldiers in World War II: “The children of my generation understood that those young Americans, 20 years old, were true heroes to whom they owed the fact that they were free people and not slaves. France will never forget the sacrifice of your children.”
And may we in the US be appreciative of PM Sarkozys utterance. Far too many world ‘leaders’ get a perverse pleasure from painting a portrait of America as the cause of the worlds ills. How long has it been since a French PM said such a thing so publicly and without reservation?