I've been sitting here this morning trying to string together the proper words to pay homage to this great Nation on this Fourth of July, and, while I can write page after page after page about everything that makes this country the greatest in the history of man, I find that the most profound tribute I can pay to the Unites States of America on her 234th birthday consists of two simple words:

Thank you.

Thank you to the settlers of Jamestown, Crispus Attucks, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams. Thank you General Washington and the Continental Army. Thank you to the Militias. Thank you to those whose blood soaked the fields at Lexington and Yorktown. Thank you to every man who left his farm and his family to fight not just as Virginians or Pennsylvanians or Kentuckians or Marylanders, but as Americans.

Thank you to all of those who, over two-hundred years ago, believed. Who so valued not just their own freedom, but that of their American brethren, that they sacrificed and gave their all to rip liberty from the grasp of tyranny.

Thank you to all of those who, over two-hundred years ago, fathered the freedom I have the privilege to live in. And thank you to the generations of their sons who fought and sacrificed and continue to do so to preserve that freedom for me.

Thank you, America, for my freedom.