“We live in the age of interdependence. Borders don’t count for much or stop much, good or bad, anymore ~ Bill Clinton

One person didn’t cause it. Like most great events Independence Day happened because people came together around an idea greater than any single individual. Within that revolutionary declaration of how these united states should be governed are “firsts” that inspire us today.

“Problems can become opportunities when the right people come together.” ~ Robert South

When some of us believe that a freedom or responsibility in this noble experiment is being ignored fierce – and open –  debate ensues amongst many of us.

“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

Our greatest weakness comes not from without but from within. Each time we do not vote or speak up in civil debate or take action, we dilute our collective strength. In celebrating this day of independence let’s recall it happened because people came together to accomplish something greater than they could alone.

“Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.” ~ Antoine de Rivarol

That is the inherent Me2We opportunity for Americans. Wherever you live the possibility of peace and freedom burn bright only when people rise up together. It may not be the way yet it is the most likely way.

In celebration of this day, here are some Me2We thoughts (what are your favorites?)…..

“It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.” ~ Tom Paine

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” ~ John Lennon  

 “Perhaps we are not here to see each other but to see each other through.” ~ anonymous

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievement, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, I was wrong.” ~ Sydney J. Harris

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” ~ Henrik Ibsen  

“Step into the strong currents of history and shape your country’s future. Your own story and the American story are not separate, they are shared. And they will both be enriched if together, we answer a new call to service.” ~ Barack Obama

“To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.” ~ William Hazlitt

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, that is an idea whose time has come.” ~ Victor Hugo

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” ~ Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kenney

“Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there’s got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you’re at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together.” ~ Yo Yo Ma

“A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We judge others by their acts, but ourselves by our intentions.” ~ American proverb

 “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Human beings are essentially here for two purposes – to learn about and express love, and to create.  We learn about love in all our relationships.” ~ Angeles Arrrien

“The best way that we can begin to produce positive change is to make peace with what is in ourselves and others, and then work to move forward and make life even better.”?~ Marshall Goldsmith?

“From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.” ~ Cesar Chavez 

“I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences.”  ~ Margaret J. Wheatley  

“Conversation means being able to disagree and still continue the discussion.” ~ Dwight Macdonald

“Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” ~ Chief Seattle

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” ~ Jimmy Carter  

“Peace is the result of the small stitchery of everyday actions, most of them unconnected to any of the others.  Each carried out in a long train of other.” ~ Will Kirkland

“Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.” ~ William Hazlitt

“We didn’t come over on the same ship, but were all in the same boat.” ~ Bernard M. Baruch

 “We take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere.” ~ Tim McGraw

“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”  ~ Benjamin Franklin 

“I am becoming the people I love.” ~ Carlos Santana