The United States celebrates its Independence Day on July 4 with patriotic events and family gatherings that fulfill the hopes of Founding Father John Adams for a “great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, … . It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

The holiday is a major civic occasion, with roots deep in the Anglo-American tradition of political freedom, but it also is a celebration of community, a time when families and friends come together to share picnics and fireworks. For all Americans, whether citizens by birth or citizens by choice, it also is a time to reflect on the freedoms on which the nation was founded and the shared responsibility to safeguard those freedoms.

On July 4, 2001, President George W. Bush spoke outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. That document, he said, continues to represent "the standard to which we hold others, and the standard by which we measure ourselves. Our greatest achievements have come when we have lived up to these ideals. Our greatest tragedies have come when we have failed to uphold them."