I’ve been quiet on social media over the past year as my family and I focused on being there for my dad during the most difficult chapter of his life. His fight has ended, and losing him has left an ache I can’t fully put into words. But in the midst of that loss, my gratitude—for life, for freedom, for this country—has only grown deeper.
Every year on the Fourth of July, I feel a profound sense of gratitude for the privilege of calling myself an American. So many fought and sacrificed everything so that we could live in liberty, and with that privilege comes a responsibility: to ensure that freedom endures for my children, and for generations to come.
It’s the reason I write about Independence Day every year. Because in whatever way we can—through our words, our work, our example—we all share a duty to uphold the blessings of liberty. And today especially, I’m reminded of how much my dad loved this country, not for its politicians, but for opportunity it provided for him and his family to live the American dream. Honoring that love feels like the least I can do.
This day is not just about fireworks or flags. It’s about remembering those who dared to dream of something better, who risked everything to sign a declaration that defied the world’s greatest empire. They knew freedom didn’t come from a king. With firm reliance on divine Providence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of liberty, self-reliance, and limited government. America’s founding wasn’t perfect, but the principles laid out in July of 1776 made greatness possible.
The continued price of our freedom is eternal vigilance. Let not history remember our generation as the one that let it slip away. Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence for providing those first principles that still matter today. Those are the ideas – liberty, self-reliance, unalienable rights, sacred honor- that make the 4th of July worth celebrating “with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever.”
So today, I celebrate. I remember. And I recommit myself to the values that built this country and to the people, like my father, who never stopped believing in them.
Happy Independence Day!
#IndependenceDay #Gratitude #Honor #InMemory #FourthOfJuly #Freedom
Elizabeth Banak Books 