Every Dawn a Great New Beginning for America

I found a nice post from Spark it Up last month, on the third anniversary of the passing of President Ronald Reagan. The post quotes Reagan's speech to the Republican National Convention in 1992, four years after the former president left the White House:

And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for young people -- is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here. May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill.

Let us celebrate, on the Fourth of July, our national birthday, and the promise of our country's greatness as "the last best hope of man on earth."