July 2025, Anyway…

“America: the Land of Opportunity”

How many millions washed, tempest tossed, upon these shores with those very words, the land of opportunity, echoing in their minds? How many various languages were those ideas expressed in by people peering out upon the first hint of land as it crested above the new horizon?

And what drew them here? What continues to draw them here? What spark alights upon the audacious and driven peoples to leave behind the old world to make a new home in a new land? What glorious dream summons them and what promise gives them such courage?

Is it the prospect of wealth? Perhaps. But wealth is not guaranteed to any here; not to the new, not to the well established, not to the children of the poor, nor even the children of the successful. Fortune is fickle in this place and she rarely holds to a family for more than a few generations. Besides, these newcomers do not say “America; the Land of Wealth” as they arrive.

No. They come here for Opportunity. They are not here to be given to, but to create for themselves; not to be told what to think but to tell what they believe; to be free from the baggage of ancient histories. They come here to be born anew, like the seeds falling from aging trees, ready to bring fresh life to the world, landing in the soft fertile loam of liberty and independence. We want them here, the audacious and brave, who’s ideas and dreams are stifled by the bureaucratic busybodies and commanding tyrants of your past nations.

Come and land upon our shores, find your fertile ground, send your taproot down deep, and grow free. The work involved is yours to perform; we can not and aught not try to do it for you, but oh how we relish to see it done. We look on with proud wonder and fondness as every new arrival begins to rise and put forth buds and shimmering leaves of red and white and blue.

Happy Independence Day. May you all be “keen on setting the brush-fires of freedom in the minds of men”.