Remarks by Charge Stephen Cristina on the 4th of July Celebration
(July 5th 2007)

Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Excellencies, dear guests, fellow Americans,

Tonight we celebrate, together with you our guests, the 231st anniversary of the birth of our country, the United States of America. On July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia representatives of the 13 states announced the independence of the United States from Great Britain.

This was revolution -- rebellion and defiance against a legitimate sovereign. The men in Congress gathered there that day knew it well and felt obliged to explain why they had taken such a decision. This they did eloquently in the Declaration of Independence – a mere two pages of words, but words that have had a continuous effect over these past 231 years – not only in the history of my country but throughout the world.

I would like to read a bit from it, because of its beauty and because it continues to have great relevance in the world today.

"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

This declaration, ladies and gentleman, was not just a break with Britain, it was the founding of a new nation on a very revolutionary principle: that government derives its authority from the governed.

It is not blood or kinship, race or religion that binds us Americans together as a nation. It is a commitment, generation after generation, to this revolutionary doctrine: that we are all created equal and it is the right of free men and women – it is the duty of free men and women – to throw off tyranny and to create a government that guarantees us the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As an American diplomat, living overseas, amongst foreigners, I am frequently called on to defend my countries policies, its principles, and its actions both domestic and international.

As an American, I know that we have not always lived up to our principles. The shameful institution of slavery and racial segregation are among the most egregious examples.

Yet, I am proud that we have corrected our course time and again have kept fundamentally faithful to those founding principles these 231 years.

And when others criticize America, while recognizing we have stumbled, I still proudly say that no country in history has done more to promote this grand experiment in freedom and to defend it from the threats of totalitarianism.

America, I hope, will always be a defender of liberty and an example for men and women throughout the world who hunger for it. I hope that 231 years from now, throughout the world, Americans are still celebrating that revolutionary declaration that established once and for all the primacy of people over government.