Prime Minister Philip Davis’s Remarks at the United States of America’s 250th Anniversary of Independence Celebrations

Ambassador Walker. Mrs. Walker. 

Members of the Diplomatic Corps. Distinguished guests. 

Friends.

Good evening.

Tonight, we mark a remarkable milestone.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a new nation was born. It declared that all are created equal. It declared that liberty is the birthright of every soul. And it set out to prove that a free people can govern themselves.

On behalf of the Government and the people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, I bring our warmest congratulations to the President and the people of the United States of America. 

Happy Independence Day. Happy 250th birthday, America.

There is a song that carries the meaning of this day. You know it well. It begins with a question.

“O, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?”

Think about where those words were born. 

A young lawyer named Francis Scott Key stood on a deck and watched a long night of fire. The rockets glared red. The bombs burst in the air. Through the smoke, he could not tell whether the flag still stood.

He waited through the darkness. He strained his eyes against the black. And when the dawn finally broke, he looked again. 

The flag was still there.

That is the heart of the anthem. It is written as a question. “O, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?” 

Two hundred and fifty years later, the answer is the same. It still waves. Over the land of the free. Over the home of the brave.

But America has never been content only to endure. America has always dared to reach.

In 1962, a young president stood before a crowd in Texas and looked up at the sky. 

The Moon hung a quarter of a million miles away. No human being had ever set foot there. The path was unknown. The cost was steep. 

And John F. Kennedy did not flinch. 

He told the world that America chose to go to the Moon. Not because it was easy. Because it was hard.

In that single moment, he summoned the grit of an entire nation. 

He called an ordinary people to do an extraordinary thing. And he did something larger still. 

He lifted the eyes of the whole world. He showed every nation, great and small, that there is always a new frontier waiting just beyond the one we know.

Seven years later, a human footprint pressed into the dust of the Moon. The dream had become real. And the whole world looked up and believed a little more in what was possible.

We are a small nation. But we have never been a small people. We know what it means to stand on a shore, look out at a far horizon, and decide to cross it. 

America taught the world a lesson that we took into our hearts – the size of a country does not set the limit of its dreams.

Mr. Ambassador, the story of that flag, and the story of that frontier, are part of our story too.

We are neighbours. Bimini sits closer to the coast of Florida than many American cities sit to one another. 

We share more than a border. We share a horizon. We share the same waters, the same winds, and often the same weather.

Our histories were braided together from America’s very first year. 

In 1776, the same year the United States declared its independence, American Marines came ashore in Nassau. 

It was their first landing of its kind. From the very beginning, your story touched our shores.

The years since have only drawn us closer.

Today, the United States is our largest partner and our closest friend. Millions of Americans come to our islands each year. They walk our beaches. They dive our reefs. They become part of our family. And generations of Bahamians have studied, worked, and built their lives on American soil.

Our bond is built on trust. Our officers stand shoulder to shoulder against those who would traffic drugs and weapons through our region. When danger comes to one of us, we do not face it alone.

And this friendship has been tested. It has been tested by the worst that nature can send. 

And it has held.

Many in this room remember Hurricane Dorian. It struck Abaco and Grand Bahama, and it would not leave. 

The wind howled for days. 

The water rose into the rooftops. 

For our people, it was their own long night of fire. 

Homes were gone. Families were scattered.

And in the darkest hour, many wondered whether the dawn would ever come.

And when it came, America was already there. 

United States Coast Guard helicopters flew into the wreckage. American hands reached down and lifted our people from the water. American hearts broke open for us, and American help poured in. 

You did not wait to be asked. You came because that is what neighbours do. That is what friends do.

So when I hear that anthem, I hear our story inside it. 

The bombs of the storm burst over our islands. And through that terrible night, our flag was still there. And so were you.

That is what real friendship is. It is not measured in the calm. It is measured in the storm.

So let there be no misunderstanding tonight.

The friendship between The Bahamas and the United States is not a passing season. It does not begin or end with any one administration or any one election. It is woven into our geography, our history, and our blood.

It is inseparable. And it will endure.

It has stood the test of time. It has stood the test of the storm. And it will stand for the children not yet born, long after every person in this room has handed the work to younger hands.

Mr. Ambassador, two hundred and fifty years ago, a few brave souls looked into an uncertain night and dared to believe the dawn would come. 

It came.

A young president looked up at an impossible Moon and dared to believe we could reach it. We did.

That is the spirit we honour tonight. 

The courage to hold the line when the night is long. And the courage to reach for the frontier when no one has gone before.

The flag still waves. We still dare to look beyond the horizon. And standing beside that flag, as we have for half a century and more, you will always find your closest neighbour and your faithful friend, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

So I ask you to join me in celebrating this milestone.

To the United States of America, on her 250th birthday.

To the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

And to a friendship that no ocean can divide, and no storm can ever break.

God bless the United States of America. God bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. And God bless the enduring friendship between us.

Thank you.