First and foremost, a sincere thank you to all of our overseas well wishers. This nation has roots in all other nations, strong familial ties to the whole world, and it's good to know that we have not been disowned, no matter how much bickering goes on between our leaders.

I understand the frustration many people outside the US feel with the constantly subtle shifting of American political direction, for each course change we make effects the world, like the weight of a fat man in a boat. And I understand the confusion many feel about the intent of America because of these shifts.

But democracy is like a drunk in an alley, lurching first left and then right, always brought up by the walls of our Constitution. (Sometimes in their power drunken rage our leaders even try to destroy the very bricks of this wall, but it is a strong structure, and has withstood all attempts.) We are intoxicated, even lo these many years, with the heady nectar of freedom, and like a happy drunk we constantly offer, nay, even sometimes insist, that others imbibe.

But don't be deceived by outward appearances. Unless we stumble and fall in some grand manner, not to rise again, our goal, like the drunk, is to reach the safety and warmth of of a home; a home where all men are equal, not only in the eyes of our Creator, but in the hearts of each other.

That goal is not yet attained, and perhaps it never will be. But it is that dream, that hope, of attainment that keeps us putting one foot in front of the other. There can be no doubt in the heart of any man that our goal is a worthy one. And though our strides may lack cadence, the alley we walk is always downhill, for we know that we can always be better than we have been, and that any golden age lies in the future.

A salute to you, our worldwide brothers and sisters, on this, our celebration of perpetual national change without the need for violence or oppression.