The US is not only the greatest nation in the world but also beacon of hope to the people across the globe who cherish the ideals of liberty and opportunity, President Barack Obama said on Thursday as Americans celebrated the 237th independence day.
"On July 4th, 1776, a small band of patriots declared that we were a people created equal -- free to think and worship and live as we please. It was a declaration heard around the world -- that we were no longer colonists, we were Americans, and our destiny would not be determined for us; it would be determined by us," Obama said in his address to the nation on occasion of America's independence day.
Obama remembered people who laid their lives to achieve independence.
"And now, 237 years later, the United States -- this improbable nation -- is the greatest in the world. A land of liberty and opportunity. A global defender of peace and freedom. A beacon of hope to people everywhere who cherish those ideals," Obama said in his radio address to the nation.
"Generations of Americans made our country what it is today -- farmers and teachers, engineers and labourers, entrepreneurs and elected leaders -- people from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, all pulling in the same direction," he said.
"And now we, the people, must make their task our own -- to live up to the words of that Declaration of Independence, and secure liberty and opportunity for our own children, and for future generations," said the US President.
