Today marks the 240th anniversary of the most important civic event in the history of humankind, the founding of America – the first nation founded on the principle that the purpose of the government is to defend the liberty of all human beings, rather than to protect the privileges of a particular tribe of people who live in a region. We didn’t get it all right at first – it actually took almost a hundred and fifty years – but it’s now an idea shared by peoples and governments all around the globe, notably in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, to celebrate, I hope you all freely joined with friends and family to celebrate your freedom to do so, and then got to watch things explode. Because that last part may not be part of the universal fabric of human rights, but that’s the American way!
