Happy Independence Day.

We're doing something a little different today instead of the news you need to know.

We asked our staff, contributors, and a few elected officials to reflect on the birth of our nation.

Through two centuries a civil war to world wars and tumultuous cultural and global changes

America has survived.

That's because regular citizens have held tight to the spirit that sparked this unprecedented

experiment in human freedom.

I'm DalyWire, editor-in-Chief John Bickley.

It's July 4th, and this is a special Independence Day edition of Morning Wire.

We start right here in our home state with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

How often do we stop and think about what it means to say, I am an American.

As we celebrate Independence Day,

let's stop and think about what it means.

It means that we live in a free country,

that we are a free people, that we have the right to free speech. It means that

we have the opportunity to pursue our version of the American dream. I am so grateful I can say I am an

American. This is Chip Roy a congressman from the 21st District of Texas, near Austin, Texas.

As someone who went to the University of Virginia, I'm pretty steeped in all things Thomas Jefferson.

July 4th sticks out because of the Declaration of Independence and what the Declaration of Independence

meant, what it means.

But if you ask me what July 4th means to mean,

July 4th means something way more than the hot dogs and the parades

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