We are, therefore, we must

The first were the angels, formed in light.
Beings of pure spirit, timeless, forever bright.

The last was mankind, known as the children.
Conceived in darkness and conceived in light.



My citizenship and your citizenship are neither more nor less than each other -
at the rising of each moment, a quality that is forever equal in our soul.

We know it as truth in our spirit and in our hearts,
we express it in the reality of the nationhood that we embrace as a people.

Together, we give each other identity, order, purpose, and strength -
that we may make of this gift of belonging together what we ought to make it.

Upon this equal pursuit we as citizens must rely on the nurture of human freedoms
and the quality of our individual happiness, in this world or the next one, depend on it...
on our learning of it - and from it - and of the freedom of God with it.

In this way, by the light of our liberty -
in that enlightening sense of truth, we as one nation, collectively posses -
the Light in the heart of darkness triumph in each of our living
and by each life lived to the fullest - we are so gathered under heaven -
a nation among one great family of nations - by our faith in God and faith in our people -
across our generations - worlds upon worlds - quenched in everlasting waters...
in the fullness of a forever we can only begin to imagine...
or even dare to inspire.

We are, therefore, we must.
---<--@