Rob Smith

The American experiment was built on the necessity of virtue and honor. A people freed from the tyranny of government, they understood, still needed to be checked by their own morality, philosophy, and religion.

The Founders were delegating a whole hell of a lot of responsibility to the people when they freed us from the yoke of the king. They were giving us a gift, sure, but also an immense obligation—to be good citizens, good people, good leaders of ourselves and stewards of our collective resources. This responsibility falls on each of us today, no matter where we live or what form of government we’re under.

Today, while you’re grilling out and celebrating the holiday with friends and family, take a moment to reflect on this tension between freedom and virtue. What does it mean to approach your life with the courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom that guided the Founding Fathers? In what ways have we as a nation perhaps fallen short of the responsibilities that come with freedom?

Let today be more than a celebration—let today be a recommitment to the virtues that make freedom possible. A recommitment to truth, to self-mastery, to taking responsibility, to work. The work of choosing virtue when it would be easier not to, of living up to the responsibilities that this nation demands, of proving worthy of the liberty we’ve inherited. For only through this work can this great experiment in freedom, begun 249 years ago, continue.🇺🇸