Happy 4th of July, the birth of a Democratic Republic whose experiment was the people making it what it could be.

Though many have manipulated the system for monetary gain, and many others have been plowed under in this effort, we still have the scaffolding of an amazing experiment, if we simply have faith in one another, and lead with our hearts. If we have the courage to step up to the juggernaut and place it on a more productive path.

With the hearts and hands of many, absolutely everything is possible!!

People are GOOD. Many are just scared. And there are those keeping them more scared, because it makes those people and organizations money. But we’re smarter now. And more connected now. And more compassionate now.

We are more ingenious and more inventive when we work together—and when we put our genius to work!!

Have a Happy Independence Day. Not a Happy Defiance Day, not a Happy Resistance Day, but a Happy INDEPENDENCE Day; independent and unique. Here for a purpose. Free-thinking and letting others think as well. Room to be whomever it is we feel we are to be, while not needing to take away from others in their own expression.

Freedom does not mean “free for some”, not for others. It is a big concept that many have a very difficult time with. Freedom means FREE. And though we in America aren’t absolutely free (taxes, laws, inequality issues), we have the ingredients in our Constitution here to TRULY create a society where ALL are equal. Where ALL thrive. Where ALL have enough.

Yet that takes vision, and leadership, and heart, and community, and the strength to give away jaded-thinking (which means the courage to potentially be hurt in the process,and the temerity to heal and to move forward anyway.) It takes an awareness that our nation is now governed by dollars first, and people second. It takes a laser-focused mind to create a pathway for those dollars that also create a pathway for the wellness of society, which at times means the wellness of the financial sector, which does not have to be a predator, yet could be a powerful contributor.

Because we are The United States of America. United, to form a more perfect Union. We are not a Confederation of Independent States. We are a Republic which grants the freedom to states to operate best within their population, while still upholding the banner and laws granting freedom as set forth in our country’s governing documents.

For there is a light cast upon all of us, from a beacon on hope, a gateway of opportunity, held open by a WOMAN, forever staring out to the sea on our eastern seaboard. She never tires of hoisting that lamp, a guidepost to through the fog for all to see. And she says:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
—The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus

If she can do it—we can do it.

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Remember what we have. And let’s continue on in the Great Experiment, evolving it again to meet a new, next chapter in what is indeed demanded of those that live in these complicated and miraculous times.