Declare your independence!

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin said that the work of our founding fathers had given us a Republic… “if [we] could keep it.”

More than 200 years after those words were spoken, one could view his words as prophetic at the least. As well, they must come as a wake-up, lest we lose the Republic.

We aren’t here today because of luck. We are here because for more than 200 years, men and women have been willing to fight to ensure that our unalienable rights endowed by our creator would be secure – among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We are here because the American soldier carries the flag in his heart – a heart inspired by something bigger than financial gains or personal agendas. The soldier carries the flag of freedom – willing to pay any price necessary – in order to ensure that flag doesn’t falter.

The soldier carries the flag in the physical fight when necessary as a part of the best trained and most technologically advanced military in the world. He carries it when he treats the wounded civilians of a tyrannical society. He carries it as he buries fallen comrades.

The soldier carries the quest for freedom – and no price is too dear to pay to achieve that mission.

The flag bearers of the Revolutionary War knew this position as well. Unarmed and on the front line, they had but one call – to carry the flag. That was their weapon.

Such is our case today as American citizens. As citizens of the greatest country on the face of the earth, we aren’t in need of guns or IEDs, cannons or RPGs. We are in need of the flag – not just because of its physical form – but because of what it stands for.

Today, we are called to be flag bearers. Called to remember the Republic that our founders were willing to give their very lives for – a Republic where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were non-negotiable.

We’re called on to remember the heart of the soldier – to reinforce through our actions everything each of them stands to fight for and defend on our behalf.

I believe we find ourselves in this moment in time not by happenstance, but by Providence. It is you and I who will determine the answer to Benjamin Franklin’s question. It is ours to decide whether we are worthy of the sacrifices made by our founders and those who have followed.

It is our mission – today and every day that follows.

Declare you Independence.