Two hundred and fifty years — that is a lot, isn’t it?
I don’t know your whole history. I wasn’t born in the United States, and I haven’t lived what you have lived. But from what I have read, learned, and observed, it feels like these lands once became a refuge for millions of people. A place of life for those who wanted something different — a new world of independence, challenge, freedom, responsibility, and possibility.
If we are being honest, this path was never simple. The people who built this country had great dreams, but they also did terrible things. They came as conquerors. They took land from people for whom these lands were already home. They destroyed lives. They used slavery. They damaged nature. They took resources. They gathered power for their own goals.
That is part of the story too.
It feels like this path was never sunny and beautiful. But it was real. It was new. And it required enormous effort, courage, labor, and belief to become what it is today.
In my short life, the United States has mostly been associated with technology, innovation, opportunity, entrepreneurship, speed, and the belief that a person can change their own life. For many people around the world, America has represented movement, ambition, invention, and the possibility of becoming more than the place you were born into.
But when I look deeper, I also see another side: using power to push interests, influence through force and manipulation, careless consumption that damages the world, and a kind of arrogance toward other nations, cultures, and ways of life. I see moments when strength starts to matter more than justice. When freedom begins to look like control. When leadership begins to look like domination.
You are a great country. You are a powerful country. And you became that way because, long ago, you fought for your place under the sun… From others.
And now it sometimes feels like you are losing your own place under that same sun, not because someone is taking it from you, but because you are losing the unity around dignity, justice, freedom, and shared purpose — the ideas that once made America a symbol of a new beginning for so many people.
Two hundred and fifty years of independence…
And it feels like the idea of independence — the idea of a new world that could be fair, free, and open possibilities for everyone — has too often turned into control, pressure, tolerated domination, and the creation of dependence through power and manipulation.
But the sun is one.
And it rises for all of us.
No matter the color of our skin, the language we speak, or the country we were born in, we are all human. And most of us want the same thing: to live a good life. To love. To create. To be safe. To have meaningful work. To raise children who can look into the future without fear.
That New World your ancestors once created, or at least tried to create, is not something only America needs anymore.
We all need it now.
I just want to congratulate you on 250 years of independence. And I genuinely want to thank every aware and thoughtful American who, at the end of the day, is just a regular person like me.
And I want to say one thing.
Please, let’s stop this mad idea of competition.
Let’s stop living as if the only way to win is to defeat one another. Let’s stop fighting over a slice of the same cake, and start baking a new one together.
A bigger one.
A better one.
A healthier one.
For everyone.
I don’t love that the world is becoming global, because it often loses its essence. It loses the uniqueness of places, cultures, languages, traditions, and the quiet ways people belong to their own land. But at the same time, we have never been this close. And maybe we have never been this similar.
So, please…
Let’s live together in peace.
Let’s stop wars and destruction.
Let’s develop a culture of creation, care, and support.
Let’s create a world that values mastery and quality.
Let’s make better choices — not only for ourselves, but for each other.
Let’s build a world where people want to wake up early, look into the future, and feel dignity, self-respect, and hope.
A world worth inheriting for every child on this planet, no matter where they were born, what language they speak, or beneath which sun they fall asleep.