by Ebey Soman

Created on: June 24, 2007

Dear, Ladies & Gentlemen, Teachers, Students, Delegates And my Fellow Countrymen,

We are a unique generation, a unique network of family and friends, a unique nation. We have toiled to justify our means and our actions.

We are the best of the best, not because of power, not because of wealth or not because of any material possessions. We are the best the world has to offer because of one principle.

That principle, ladies and gentlemen, is Democracy. I can stand on this podium and I can say with pride "I am proud to be an American".

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am truly proud how we have been able to hold up the principles that only men dream of. The principles of liberty, justices, prosperity, individual rights and peace. The principles we sometimes take for granted.

Friends, Men have paid dearly for our rights that we take for granted. In the days when our country was in the making, our founding fathers made history. They put their beliefs, their social standings, their family bonds and especially their life in the hands of fate. They committed treason for you and me, so that we may have a better life.

They established those principles by challenging their social order and implementing the ideas they so strongly believed in by creating the Articles of Confederation. This document due to its lack of effective power paved the way to the creation of a more centralized government that protected its citizen's and state's rights at the same time enabling centralized federal governance came through the precious document that we now call the Constitution. This Constitution of the United States established our principals and kept us steadfast on our democratic ideals instead of falling apart.

Our Constitution created in 1787, ratified in 1788 and in effect since 1789 is the longest surviving written charter for a government. Its first three words "We The People" affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens and thereby ensuring that the people get the final voice through their elected representatives.

There were times when our Constitution was challenged and our principals were tested. Even through these times when our principles were under fire, the young and old, men and women, citizens and non-citizens rose up to defend their rights together. The members of our Army, Navy, Marines, Special Ops, Engineering Corps and Medical support teams strive everyday, sometime against many unexpected dangers to protect our common interest and our essential way

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