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[Pages S4129-S4130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FOURTH OF JULY
Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about our Nation's
independence.
Some 244 years ago this Saturday, the Founding Fathers of this
country voted to declare our independence from Great Britain.
All Americans know the basics of this story, but not everyone knows
the story behind one of our Nation's founding documents.
Thomas Jefferson was just 33 years old when the Second Continental
Congress commissioned him to draft a declaration of independence. When
he sat down in a rented room in the heat of the Philadelphia summer to
write it, the American Revolution had already begun.
On one level, he was simply putting the reasons for independence into
words. The first shot had been fired over a year earlier, after decades
of increasingly tyrannical British abuses had culminated in open revolt
in Massachusetts.
Even so, it was not yet clear whether the delegates from all 13
colonies would put their names to a formal document declaring our
independence. They had to be persuaded.
After 17 days of writing and rewriting, struggling to find the right
words, Jefferson presented his work to Benjamin Franklin and John
Adams. He then submitted a draft to the Congress on July 1, which
officially adopted it three days later.
Each year on the Fourth of July, we celebrate this moment--the moment
that we declared our independence from the British Empire and began to
see ourselves as our own nation.
I love Independence Day celebrations in Nebraska. Like many people,
my family often spends the day enjoying the great outdoors before
hosting friends and neighbors for a barbecue.
But the Fourth of July is about more than food and fireworks or
parades and pancake feeds. It is an opportunity to reflect on the
nearly two and a half centuries of our nation's history and remember
what it means to be an American.
To me, America is a nation based on an idea. It is the idea, as
Jefferson wrote, that ``all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.''
Belief in this creed is what unites us as Americans. And while we may
not always live up to this idea, we can never stop trying. We should
count ourselves fortunate to live in the greatest nation on earth,
where the notion
[[Page S4130]]
of equal justice for all first came into the world.
I was touched to see that on June 22, 36 people became American
citizens in the first naturalization ceremony held in Lincoln since
February. This diverse group of people renounced their loyalty to their
former countries and took an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Family and friends in attendance brought homemade banners, red, white,
and blue balloons, and other patriotic displays.
These 36 people, despite being citizens for only a few weeks, are
just as American as you or me. And these new citizens chose to be
Americans. They weren't born here, but they saw America for what it is:
a shining city upon a hill, where our institutions, though they
sometimes falter, strive to honor Jefferson's promise of God-given
rights and equal treatment before the law for all citizens.
We are not perfect, but neither can we forget our founding purpose.
The United States was the first nation in history to set this lofty
standard for ourselves, and we remain its best example.
This Independence Day, as our country wrestles with both a pandemic
and national unrest in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, I urge
you to remember that we remain, as President Abraham Lincoln said
during the Civil War, ``the last best hope of earth.''
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor and note the absence of a
quorum.
____________________
