Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Guest (Male): Yesterday, connecting past. Today, with an outer view. Tomorrow, to understand future. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is the program that covers the current contemporary social issues in the light of our history to understand our yesterday, to live fully today and tomorrow. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow with Inseong Kim.

Inseong J Kim: Hello, this is Inseong Kim from Yesterday Today Tomorrow. Happy 250th anniversary of Independence Day on July 4th, 2026. Let’s take a moment right now, wherever we are at, and think about this beautiful land—rivers, plains, mountains, and coastlines. Think about the richest agriculture soil on earth, the energy beneath our feet, and the fresh water in our lakes and rivers. Think about what has been built on this land from the beginning.

We were the universities that lead the world, the hospitals with the most advanced medicine ever created, and the technology that connects and creates at a scale no generation before us could imagine. Think about the people. 250 years of men and women who came here, many with nothing, and built something. All of us, when we think of it, were all immigrants in the beginning, other than the native people here. Every culture on earth is represented; every talent on earth is present.

This is what we start with today. No anxiety about what we lack, but gratitude for what we have in this land. There is an honest recognition that what we have is more than enough to meet this moment. 250 years ago, something happened that had never happened before in human history. Ordinary people—farmers, lawyers, teachers, merchants—looked at the most powerful empire on earth and said simply: "We will govern ourselves."

That was the beginning. It wasn't, "Now we will find a better king," or "Now we will negotiate better terms." It was: "We will govern ourselves." They had no map for where they were going. No nation had done this before. There was no example to follow or guarantee that it would work. They had only a vision. The vision was of what free people in a free land might look like. It’s not perfect, but the vision was clear. It wasn’t what it did look like anywhere on earth, but what it could look like and what it should look like.

They built toward that vision, sometimes imperfectly, painfully, or incompletely, but they built it and kept building. That idea was radical then, and in many ways, it remains radical now. Self-governance is genuinely hard. It requires something more than systems ever demand of ordinary people. It requires each citizen to take responsibility not just for themselves, but for each other and for the generation that comes after.

The Founders came out from under the authority of a king and out of the bondage of the power that ruled against their consent. We must never, by carelessness, comfort, and drift, go back under any form of control that replaces our hard-won freedom with a new dependency. Let us be honest about what freedom actually requires. Freedom without financial stability is desperation, not liberty. Freedom without protection is vulnerability, not safety.

Freedom without a border is not openness; it is the absence of a shared framework that makes freedom sustainable. This is not some one-party's ideology. It’s a fact and a reality. These are not limitations on freedom; they are its foundation. Freedom costs money to maintain on this side of heaven. When we go to heaven, we might not need it, but it is a fact and reality that freedom costs money to maintain.

It costs lives to protect and discipline to sustain. Every generation that enjoyed freedom without paying those costs eventually lost it. It wasn't always dramatic or all at once, but it happened slowly. Keep it up with discipline. It is important. Slowly, as the financial foundation eroded, the protection weakened and borders blurred. That is not pessimism; that is the honest lesson of every free society in history.

That is the promise America made to the world in 1776. Every generation since has had the privilege and the responsibility of keeping it. The word independence itself tells us everything. We are celebrating Independence Day. Let’s think for a moment, rather than just celebrating with fireworks and gathering together. Let's think about the word itself: independence, the opposite of dependence.

The Founders understood that political freedom alone was not enough. People who cannot feed themselves are not truly free. People who cannot heal themselves are not truly free. A people whose survival depends entirely on others are not fully free, however friendly those others may be. They declared independence not just from a king, but from a condition of dependency itself.

They said we will build our own with our own hands, on our own land, for our own future. That spirit and willingness to build is the deepest meaning of what we mark today. Consider what the Founders actually had when they signed the Declaration. They had no standing army, no established government, no industrial base, and no guaranteed allies. They had none of the modern medicine or technology that we have today.

They were a collection of colonies held together by a shared idea and very little else. From almost nothing, they built the most consequential experiment in human self-governance the world has ever seen. We are the inheritors of what they built. We are wealthier than any generation before us. We have technology they couldn’t have imagined and resources and knowledge they spent their lives building for us.

They had almost nothing and built everything. That is not a reason for shame about where we are today; it is the most powerful source of hope imaginable. If they could do what they did with what they had, think about what we can do with what we have today. That is something we can think about and imagine. Where do we go from here?

Before we talk about our future, let us remember what this nation has already survived. Real hope is not wishful thinking; real hope is an honest record of what Americans have already proven they can endure. Consider the winter of Valley Forge in 1777. Washington’s army was starving, barefoot in the snow, and dying of disease. They were outnumbered and outgunned. Every rational calculation said it was over. Yet they stayed, they fought, and they won.

We know the Civil War took more than 600,000 American lives—more than every other American war combined. It was brother against brother and a nation torn in half. It survived and emerged with a stronger commitment to equality than it had promised but not yet fully delivered. The Great Depression left one in four Americans without work. Banks failed, farms were abandoned, and families lost everything. America did not give up. They organized, endured, and rebuilt.

In the Second World War, so many Americans died. Families received the telegrams they prayed would never come. There were Gold Star mothers in every town and every state. From that grief, America helped rebuild not just itself, but the entire shattered world because we believed our vision was good for humanity. That is something we have to treasure.

Every single time America has been knocked down, it has gotten back up. This wasn't because America is perfect or because the nation has always been just, wise, or far-sighted. It was because the American character, forged over 250 years of this kind of trial, refuses to stay down. That is not mythology; that is the documented historical record of this people. That record is the foundation of every hope that we carry today. That is what represents America.

250 years is not just a milestone to celebrate; it is an invitation to honest reflection. In 1814, just 38 years after independence was declared, a foreign army marched into Washington and burned the White House to the ground. The President had to flee, and flames lit the sky over the capital. The young nation looked at the ruins and asked itself an honest question: "How did we let this happen? What must we build so it never happens again?"

That honest question led to genuine rebuilding, sturdier institutions, stronger resolve, and a deeper understanding of what sovereignty actually requires. The burning of the White House was not the end of America. It was the moment America decided what it truly was. Today, we are invited to a similar moment of honest reflection. This is not because we face a burning building, but because we are a nation richer than anything the Founders imagined, yet we have in some places drifted from the spirit that made us strong in the first place.

That spirit says we build our own governance and provide for our own. We stand on our own feet, not in dependence, so we can offer a genuinely free hand to others. The good news is everything we need to renew that spirit is already here—technology, resources, people, and knowledge. We are not starting from nothing; we are starting from the most powerful foundation any nation has ever had.

The question is: what kind of direction are we pursuing? When we lose the vision of any institution, country, or individual, we take off for something we did not intend from the beginning. That’s what we have to re-examine. Who are we? What is freedom? What is independence? What is self-governance? We need to revisit it, mirror ourselves, and check how far we came and how we can fix the problems.

That is what America came to. Think of all the issues we had in 1776—to build a nation or remain a colony. In 1861, to fulfill the promise of equality or let it die. In 1933, to let the economy collapse or rebuild for everyone. In 1941, to ignore the world or stand up for the world. I think we are at a crossroads. We should seriously think about this today, not just have a vacation or stay home resting. We should really re-examine what is happening in the world.

Our choice today is different in shape but identical in nature. Will we use what we have—this extraordinary wealth, this remarkable technology, and this inherited freedom—to build genuine strength and genuine sovereignty for ourselves and a genuine model for the world? We are the example of this freedom and independence. This is not a frightening question. It is an exciting one.

Unlike the generations of 1776, 1861, 1933, or 1941, we have come so far to fulfill our vision. This generation is almost the fruit of the seeds the Founders sowed. Yet, we are forgetting this vision of self-governance. As I shared in the beginning, without financial freedom, there is no freedom. Without protection, there is no freedom. Without a border, there is no freedom. Anybody can come through the border, not just the outside skirt of the nation; they can come to our back door.

That is what we are experiencing. We are living with a kind of unhealthy fear. In the olden days, children played outside and we didn't have to worry about where the kids were until they came home at night. Now, we have to worry about our own backyard. It is not something we envisioned. Wherever you are listening to our program, you may be holding a flag today. We have to think about this.

This is a symbol of our independence and freedom. The Founders did not hand us a piece of cloth; they handed us freedom with responsibility. When we think of it, we are the flag. You are the flag. I am that flag representing freedom and independence. It is not because of where we were born or what we believe politically, but because in human nature, we all pursue freedom.

Whether in a communist country or a capitalist country, it doesn’t matter where we are at. In human nature, we want freedom. Nobody wants someone controlling them. That is a God-given right. But because we are the citizens of a self-governing nation, self-governance only works when citizens take it seriously. Treasure it. Independence is not declared once and kept forever. It is built every day by ordinary people who choose to build.

That is what we are celebrating today. On this 250-year anniversary, reflect on the recent history of 80 years after World War II. How did it unfold? What are we facing today? Today, on this 250th anniversary, celebrate. This nation is worth celebrating. Its ideals are worth celebrating. The people—resilient, creative, and generous—are worth celebrating.

Then, make one decision. Not a resolution you forget by August, but one real decision, one real action, and one genuine contribution to the nation that gave us everything the Founders bled to build. Not even in long history ago, so many people went out and shed their blood, whether it was intended to be a good war or not. That is what citizenship has always meant in America—not just receiving freedom, but earning it every single day.

250 years ago, they built something from nothing. We have everything. The next chapter is ours to write. We have more than enough to make it the greatest one yet if we do not lose that vision. The past is a foundation we stand on, not a chain that holds us back. We should not focus on blaming our past, but on how we are going to work together and be united.

Especially with an election coming, we need healthy debate on the platform so all American people feel safe. The leaders should look after the real people, not just for the slogan itself. They should truly care, not just for the sake of the debate to win, but to actually have a plan to save this country and the people within it. That is really what's at stake. That is what we have to carefully research and study.

Look at what is happening outside of this country. Listen and pay attention to protect what we have here. Most of us who are born here don’t really know the value of freedom, what independence means, and the value of self-governance that we are allowed to have here. When we get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee, we can sit down and really think about our country. This is not a one-person job or just the leaders' job. This is everyone's job.

Be self-governing, be responsible, and be financially independent rather than depending on any other country. Protect the border so that our backyard is protected. Our freedom is at stake. These are very critical matters in our time. We never had this kind of challenge for a long time. We never imagined war could happen in our country.

Pearl Harbor was the closest one, and then 9/11 happened. Now we have to ask, how long does the memory of a national tragedy last? AI said not even nine months. We all forget what happened. It is very important for us not to lose our vision and to stay alert. Thank you for listening to Yesterday Today Tomorrow. Happy 250th anniversary, and God bless America.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Yesterday Today Tomorrow with Inseong Kim. You can also find more from Inseong Kim at inseongkim.org. That's i-n-s-e-o-n-g-k-i-m dot o-r-g. Thank you for listening to the show. It's no secret that we have a lot of heart for truck drivers. That's why Racetrac High-Flow Diesel stores have great services and amenities you need to keep on trucking. There's accessible and convenient parking, dedicated truck lanes, certified cat scales, clean facilities, and hot made-in-house food. Yep, we're more than just your daytime meal stop. You could even say we're trucking's best-kept secret. Racetrac, whatever gets you going.

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