Statement on the Observance of Independence Day, 1977

The Fourth of July is Americans' traditional day of celebration, a chance to remind ourselves of the heritage we share with each other and with the men of great spirit and wise vision who brought our Nation into being 201 years ago today.

But July Fourth should also be a day of reflection. Freedom, the ideal which created our Nation and continues to give it meaning throughout the world, has flourished in human history far more seldom than we would like to believe.

The work of freedom can never be finished, for freedom is not a temple that is completed when the last stone is in place, but a living thing that each generation must create anew.

In 1977 we must face this task--for ourselves and for the world--with a renewed sense of optimism, confident in the strength of our own beliefs and in the signs that other nations share them.