Today as the sun comes up over in Richmond, Virginiaā I find myself thinking about this city and its past. Richmond is not afraid to show its history. It carries it right out in the open, where you can see it, feel it, with the scars laid bare. Itās not hidden or polished. Itās in the brick walls and the worn-down steps, in the church bells and train horns. Itās in the silence between whispers, and in the noise of peaceful discord.
Here, the past doesnāt feel distantāit walks beside the present, but this city keeps looking forward. Thereās hope here. A kind of quiet revival you can feel if you stand still long enough.
Being here now is like standing between two rivers. On one side, you have the Jamesāsteady, patient, always moving east. On the other side, you have the unknown. The part of life no map can explain. And in the middle, thereās Richmond. A city that once held the reins of something dark and cruel, and yet somehow found its way to something better. A place thatās learning, still changing, still standing.
I look around and I see not a city but countryāits story written right into every corners and cracks. Itās there in the pavement. It echoes in the hum of every pickup truck that rolls down Broad Street. And every face I see say the same thing to me: America.
Weāre the sons and daughters of the forgotten, the tossed aside. The scum of failing empires. The broken pieces of old wars and bad governments. But we came here anyway. And built Institutions. Roads. Schools. Dreams. Somehow, in all that mess, we built something worth keeping.
And in this Fourth of July, the rest of the country could learn something from this city.
Right now, it feels like weāre being pulled apart, pitted against each other in matters of pettiness. Not by strangers, but by people who wants only power. People who need us to hate each other so they can stay on top. So they could stifle wisdom and our American values. To keep us afraid. But thatās not who we are. It never has been.
It took guts to come here. Guts to cross the ocean. Guts to stand up to a king and say, no more! That kind of courage runs deep in this countryāeven if we forget it sometimes.
“And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”
Iāve always been proud to be hereāeven now, in spite of everything going on for I know we will rise, endure, and overcome.
I’ll step outside now, breathe in the air and fill my lungs with the deep clean air of democracyāthick as it isāand feel what it means to be part of something bigger than myself. Thatās what this dayās about. Not fireworks. Not parades. But the chance to stop for one moment and remember what weāre part of.
To feel it in your chestāthe weight of freedom, and the cost of keeping it.
Happy Independence Day, Richmond. Happy Fourth of July, America!
Letās not forget what weāve been given. Or what weāre still fighting for āA republic, if we can keep it!
A Kings 
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