Independence Day

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.
13 And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.
14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise . . .
15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance . . .
16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them.
17 And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.
18 And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle.
19 And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations. (1 Nephi 13)

I love these verses, written by a man who lived in the Americas 600 years B.C., close to 2000 years before Columbus was inspired to come to the Americas, and a few hundred more before the pilgrims came. I love the United States of America - I love the principles it was founded upon. I love those who fought for independence, and I love the Founding Fathers for all that they did, like writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Today we live in a time of apology for who we are and what we mean, which is absurd to me. Those who came before us tried a new and exciting - an inspired and well-thought-out and debated - experiment. It was an experiment that succeeded and brought hope to other people throughout the world. It gave a Dream to the world - a dream that I'm so grateful to be a part of. All of the success comes from the Lord and is really a part of His work. Our danger today is in forgetting - forgetting Him and forgetting what history teaches us; that this experiment really works. It works better than any other imperfect system I know of. God bless America, and may we put in the effort that we each need to in order to preserve this great experiment.