Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time. It is precisely because we love this nation. Need some #July inspiration? Listen to @mayor.nyc.gov 🇺🇸
"We see America each time working people demand more, not just for themselves, but for their fellow Americans. There are some who respond to those who ask for more from America with a simple refrain. Love it or leave it, they say. But patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time. It is precisely because we love this nation that we will not leave it. After all, who loves America more than those who have sacrificed so much to make it free? Today, I think not only of the 4th of July, I think too of the 9th of July. Five days after the Declaration of Independence was signed, it arrived here in our New York City. Red coats had disembarked on Staten Island. More than 100 British ships loomed just offshore. Across this city, the Continental Army prepared for an invasion. George Washington commanded his brigades to assemble just a few feet from this building. It was known then as the Commons. Today, we call it City Hall Park. There, within range of British guns, Washington ordered his generals to read the declaration aloud. And with the world's mightiest empire poised to attack, Washington told the people of New York City what we will celebrate tomorrow, that we had declared our independence, that freedom was within reach. That evening, danger loomed. Conflict was not a question, but a certainty. And yet, when those early New Yorkers marched toward the statue of King George III that stood in the Bowling Green, a statue they would melt down into bullets for their young army, they walked in unison, grounded not in the pursuit of plunder, but in ideals that for the first time had a name, America. Those ideals upon which our nation was built, they are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them. Ours is a nation working each day towards the perfection in which it was conceived, a nation striving each day to better itself. Therein lies the work of America, the striving, the bettering, the reaching towards perfection. What a privilege each of us has to live in a nation that every one of its inhabitants can shape. What a responsibility each of us possesses to prove ourselves worthy of all those who came before. What power each of us holds to bring America ever closer to the greatness so many have seen when they looked upon these shores, the greatness that for 250 years has been America. Thank you. God bless America. God bless New York City. And happy 4th of July."
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Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time. It is precisely because we love this nation. Need some #July inspiration? Listen to @mayor.nyc.gov 🇺🇸
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