SPEECH BY THE HONORABLE JOHN J. AQUILINA, MP AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY Sydney, Australia Tuesday, July 4, 2006 We are summoned by the liberty bell to this place of learning to honor the promise of freedom won by the American people on that Philadelphia summer’s day more than two centuries ago. We celebrate not just that original Fourth of July… …but every Fourth of July since. The 230 years during which American has been blessed with the precious gift of government of the people, by the people, for the people. The democratic miracle that has seen government peacefully change hands president-by-president…without let or fail…in peace and war… ever since the days of Washington. The War of Independence was not only a revolution in British and American politics. It was… as John Kennedy said… a “revolution in world affairs.” A beacon of hope to a world hungering for liberty. A message of freedom for all peoples and all time. In the words of his Inauguaral Address on March 4th 1801… Thomas Jefferson defined the message as: “equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.” Unlike any nation or kingdom before… …America fought not only for her own freedom… …but for the freedom of others. And therefore as America counts the blessings of liberty… …she also counts its cost. A cost being paid this very day. A price being paid in every place American and their allies defend the ramparts of liberty. For those tempted to doubt the wisdom of particular American policies… they should remember the caution given by President Clinton in his first inaugural address that: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” That is the genius of a self-government by a free people. The genius of democracy. The genius of America. Something you can never destroy by bringing down tall buildings. By sinking ships… and crashing planes. The American spirit doesn’t dwell in the skyscrapers of Manhattan… …or in the outward trappings of military might and global power. It lives in the hearts of a free people. In their constitution and their laws. It lives in memory and history… in tradition and song. It lives in the smallest prairie schoolhouse where American children recite the Pledge of Allegiance and believe it. It lives in every home where a tree bound by yellow ribbon tells the story of freedom’s sacrifice. Today we celebrate a land of abundance and opportunity… …which at 230… is old in years… but still young in spirit. Still America the beautiful. Sweet land of liberty. Home of the brave. The last best hope of all who love freedom. Where better days always lie ahead. And time never dims the promise of this day. God bless the United States. May her people be strong. Her prospects fair. And her future bright.