but when I see dictators spring up in every generation I have to say:
You are strong when all your children learn to read and write
You are strong when every woman can choose to marry the man she marries
You are strong when historians are free to learn and teach in your universities and schools
You are free when each and every citizen has the right to choose their religion, or not
You are free when you build infrastructure rather than destroy
You are free when you don’t steal to enrich yourself
You are free when your every decision is based on empathy
You are free when you do not see an army as an extension of your own caprice
But most of all you are free when we can look from you to the people and back and see no dissension and no differences in shared goals and community.