(Regular ol’ Drops resume this weekend with the Bonus Drop)

To My Fellow Americans On This 249th Celebration Of Independence Day:

May our nation reclaim our right to be what I believe it can become again — a beacon showing the world, some places sooner, others later, but ultimately everywhere — the Signal that awakens people to break free from the chains that ignorance, fear, and manipulation have convinced them to accept, and to redeem the blessings and security of true self-governance.

The system the Founders built was designed to restore every citizen’s sacred right to think freely, speak openly, and form their own opinions without interference. Eyes are reopening — or already open — to what it truly means to be free. The spread of knowledge and truth has made it clear to anyone willing to see: the American people were not born to be ridden by those who believe themselves our natural masters, nor were any among us born with crowns on their heads, entitled by wealth, power, or privilege to control the rest.

This truth gives us hope for others around the world. For ourselves, let this and every Independence Day renew our memory of these rights and strengthen our unwavering commitment to defend them.

This American experiment presently faces those who would make themselves our rulers. They count on our forgetting who we are.

They’re wrong.

We are not subjects. We are citizens. And citizens bow to no one but the Constitution and each other.

The fight for self-governance is never finished.

It’s our turn to prove worthy of what was given to us.