Independence Day - 2017

Wow, America! 241 years and still going strong!
...okay, still going sufficiently?
Either way, I do feel some sense of pride in my country and am glad to live in it. It's true that it's not exactly popular among the other nations right now, but I still do believe it has the potential for greatness again. This isn't pride with the mindset of any competition, mind you. With over two hundred years of some of the brightest minds and boldest visions, we have been able to collaborate before to make great achievements for everybody involved. We have brought human flight, interplanetary space travel, and much of the modern computational era to the table, and we did it by opening ourselves to the rest of the world. America was where it all happened, but it required the best from Germany, Great Britain, China, Japan, Russia, and many more.
It may look like the road is rocky now, but it always has been. Behind every great success were at least ten failures. The most important thing we can do is remember the ideals we started out with: cultural freedom, rational thought, and the pursuit of happiness for all. As our theory of mind and sphere of influence increase, it only becomes more and more important to spread these hopes to as many as we can, friend or foe, young or old, until we can honestly say we did our best to make the world a better place than it was before.
That's the America I believe in, so that's the America I celebrate.
Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Rendered in Photoshop