US Embassy holds Independence Day Celebration: The occasion marked the final July 4th celebration for George Tsunis, who is nearing the end of his tenure as ambassador (photos, video)

To mark the 248^th commemoration of American independence, the United States Embassy in Athens held a reception on Monday, July 15^th, at the Athens Music Hall.  The theme of this year’s celebration:  Education, Inclusion, and Accessibility.

“The rights of people with disabilities are human rights, and we believe our societies and economies are stronger when all people have the opportunity to fully participate,” Ambassador George J. Tsunis told the audience.  “This is more than a celebration, but a call for action for all of us to act on our conviction.”

The ambassador explained that this year’s celebration was moved to the Megaro Mousiki (Athens Concert Hall) from the ambassador’s residence where the annual reception has traditionally taken place precisely because it is a more accessible venue.

This was the first event to be accompanied by sign language interpretation.  “We took steps to make the occasion accessible, otherwise it is an exclusion,” he added.

To punctuate the event’s theme, Katerina Vrana, a stand-up comedian who shared her personal journey in remarks delivered.  With humor and charm, she described the need for improved education and accessibility in Greece for persons with disabilities.

The occasion marked the final July 4rth celebration for Ambassador Tsunis, who is nearing the end of his tenure as ambassador. The ambassador used the moment to collectively commit to protect democracy and resolve the challenges of inequality and climate change and to always uphold human dignity and opportunity for all.

“Kindness and civility are the path to a higher society,” said the ambassador. “May our house be a house for all people not just those that look like us.”

• Ambassador George J. Tsunis Independence Day 2024 Celebration Remarks 

July 15, 2024

Kalispera, Athina!

I stand before you today for what will be my final July Fourth celebration as Ambassador.

The theme of today’s Independence Day celebration is “Education, Inclusivity, and Accessibility.”  As part of our commitment to accessibility, I have been asked to describe myself.  Well, somehow, after almost 1,000 days at this incredible but demanding job, I still have most of my hair – now if anyone had ever met my father, you’d know this was a gift from my mother.  I suppose one might charitably describe me as moderately cute, maybe a 6’5 from a distance?  But there’s far less of me this thanks to a wonderful Greek diet – I am down about 40 kilos.

But seriously, what I can say without hesitation is that I remain no less humbled at the privilege of serving my country in my family’s ancestral homeland.

I hope my love for Greece and its people – and President Bidenopoulos’ love for Greece and its people — is as evident as our two nations’ commitment to democratic ideals.

I am often asked, “Is Greece important to the United States? We’re a small country here.” Well I said, “The President of the United States understood it when he nominated a proud Greek-American to serve as the Ambassador here.”

My time as Ambassador has been nothing less than a generational honor.  I have so many of you to thank for supporting, educating, and inspiring me in all the ways you have.

This is especially true of my wife Olga and our three wonderful children, who uprooted their lives in our lovely village in New York to support me in this noble endeavor.

Today is a celebration of the birth of the American democratic experiment, one based on principles and values born here in Athens and shared between our two countries at a critical crossroads in our histories.

And more than just a celebration, I hope this event will be a call to action.

A call for all of us, everywhere, to find the courage to act on our convictions.

Last year I stood at a podium just up the road, at Jefferson House, and told you we are defined by our choices.  The choice to pursue love, not hate.  The choice to pursue unity, not division.  Dignity — for all people.  Because all people are born with inherent dignity.

These are important sentiments, but without action, they are mere words.

So today, I want to speak about the commitment – the courage — to actually do the hard work of protecting our precious democracy.

To put in the time to confront increasingly existential threats to civil society and, indeed, our very planet.

That we have choices is the gift of democracy. But it is a gift, my friends, that comes with obligations – and that includes the obligation to defend democracy with all our might.

Thousands of years ago, Athenians came together for the first time in self-determination, choosing how and by whom they would be governed.

Nearly two and a half centuries ago, a small group of American farmers, merchants, printers, and shopkeepers — outnumbered and outspent by their adversaries – had the courage to risk everything, including their lives, in pursuit of these Athenian values.

Common threads stitch our quests for freedom together.  In 1776 Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”  In 1821 at Agia Lavria, Bishop Germanos said, “Eleftheria i Thanatos.”  In crucial moments, we have been each other’s spark, and the democracies we have built become beacons of light to the world.

Whether inspiring Greece itself in 1821 as it fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire, or dozens of great nations after World War II and beyond, the Athenian-American model of democracy remains a global inspiration for historic change.

But we must not forget that it is our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who are still giving their lives on the front line in defense of independence, freedom from tyranny, and self-rule, and we just cannot forget that.  We must ensure that Ukraine is safe, and whole, and entirely Ukrainian.

Our democracies inspire not only historic change but personal change – as millions of people across many generations risk their lives to come to our shores, the people Emma Lazarus referred to on the Statue of Liberty, those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Democracy is a magnet, and I am proud of the work that our Embassy has done to work with Greece and other nations to help those who are truly risking their lives in search of a better life.

Not to be glib, but how many “masses” (“huddled” or otherwise) are “yearning” to cross oceans and continents to get into Iran or to get into North Korea or other places with misplaced anti-democratic values and agendas?

May Greece and the United States continue to be ever more “shining cities on the hill,” lands of refuge, freedom, and opportunity for all.  Democracies like ours afford more safety, more room for everyone to thrive and live up to their full potential.

But let’s be clear and honest:  We have much work to do to not just to promote democracy but to protect it.

We have much work to do to live up to the words of our Founders and our inspired poets.

We have much to do to “walk the talk” of creating a “more perfect union” – to have the courage – and there is that word again — to apply these principles to solve our most pressing problems.

If we want to breathe life into our foundational principle, “E Pluribus Unum,” Out of Many, One, we cannot be mere bystanders to threats such as public incivility, social inequality, and climate crisis.

We must be driven by a belief that all people have an inherent right to dignity.  Dignity in who they love. Dignity at our borders, dignity at our workplaces, our courtrooms, and our classrooms.

We dedicate ourselves to ensuring civility and respect in our public discourse, to rejecting hatred and divisiveness, to embracing civility, and love, and filoxenia.

And we cannot and we must not tolerate political violence such as what happened to former President Trump in Pennsylvania this past weekend.  It is not who we are as a people, it is not what a democracy stands for, and we must reject it and seek to prevent it in all its forms.  Weaponizing fear and cruelty will not lead to the kind of world we want to leave to our children.

Let us find inspiration in the words of scripture: “May my house be a house for all people.”  For all people, not just people who look like us or think like us or pray like us.  But for all people.

We must have the courage to confront historical inequities and structural inequalities, to ensure that every person, regardless of background or ability or the circumstances of their birth, has an opportunity to thrive and be the best version of themselves.  Kindness, and civility, and empathy are the path to a higher-minded, more prosperous society.

My family prospered in America, but it knew full well the pain of inequality.  My family knew war.  My family knew poverty.  My parents’ village, Platanos, had no running water or electricity.  Only an outhouse.

But like millions and millions across the decades, my parents came to the United States in search of opportunity and a safer place to raise a family.

Call it their Hellenic-American dream!

But my parents had the opportunity to work hard and eventually start a bgerusiness.  I was fortunate to receive an excellent public school education, to raise a family of my own, start a business, and have the opportunity to serve my country.

So when I say these blessings come with a sacred obligation to ensure that the same opportunities are available to all, I speak not only from the heart – but from my family’s experience that is ingrained in me.

In terms of practicing what we preach, I want to use this occasion to talk about the steps we took to make this celebration inclusive and accessible.

No one should ever have to RSVP “no” to a U.S. Embassy event because we haven’t done the basic, foundational work of ensuring our event is fully accessible to all.  This is exclusion.

So as part of the Embassy’s commitment to inclusion, this year for the first time we moved our Fourth of July reception out of the Ambassador’s residence, which has not yet been made fully accessible.  This is about inclusion.

To ensure an accessible event, we reached out to leaders in the disability community, who guided us through an accessibility review, helped us adjust our processes, and trained our staff to assist our guests today.  This is our first Fourth of July with sign language interpretation.

To all who have helped and educated us and made us better, you have my gratitude.  Thank you!

But we aren’t stopping with this event.  We are putting our money where our mouth is.  As my friend President Biden tells me, don’t tell me what your values are.  Show me your budget, and I will tell you what your values are.

So we have funded a project that trains individuals with disabilities to use 3D printing to solve everyday accessibility challenges.  We’re investing in educational partnerships with schools and universities.

Sometimes doing the small things have big impact.  With the Ministry of Education, we are investing in short-term professional exchange programs for Greek teachers seeking to make their classrooms more inclusive.

And one of the most inspiring things that I have done here in Greece is travel to Volos to visit our partner, Bridges of Acceptance, Greece’s first reverse inclusion classroom, where love, kindness, and empathy stirred my heart, and where I witnessed improved educational outcomes for all children.

In all this work, we strive to live up to the promise of our Founders.  Imperfect as they were, they paved the way with a vision of freedom for all, opportunity for all, democracy for all.

And speaking of our environment, as we sit in this beautiful, air-conditioned building in this majestic city by the sea, we need to do more than just talk about climate change.  It is one of the most pressing challenges of our time.

And it’s getting worse.  It knows no borders.  It has perilous personal and geopolitical implications.  Now Greeks know this full well, having suffered from historic fires and floods this past year.  Climate disruption affects us all, but it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable.

Only through collaboration will we win this fight.  We must share technology, expertise, and resources, as we did at Our Ocean Conference.  Greece was a wonderful host.   where the world came together and transformative work got done.  We came away with billions of dollars in new commitments for a cleaner, healthier ocean for our children, and our children’s children.

I began this speech with a call for action – to commit to dignity and opportunity for all.  Allow me to end on the same note.

Folks, history will judge us for how well we live up to the commitments that democracy demands of us.  For how well we address historical inequities.  For the opportunities we provide.  For the conscious choices we make to not only do the right thing, but the smart thing.

Because we cannot continue to underinvest in large swaths of our society and expect to build an agile, vibrant, innovative economy or a healthy, resilient planet.

Dr. King said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.  Yet it only bends that way when we push on it, sometimes we push on it somewhat violently to do the urgent business of now, not letting up, even when the going gets tough.

As the Talmud says, we are not obligated to complete the work, but we’re also not obligated to abandon it.

What will you do, today, to help make our world a house for all people?

If not you, then who?  If not now, then when?

Let us choose inclusion, not exclusion.

Let us choose unity, not divisiveness.

Let us choose peace, not violence.

Let us choose love, not hate.

Let us choose opportunity and possibility.  Let us choose hope.

I wanted to thank all of you for the kindness and warmth you have shown my family and I over the past two-plus years.

Happy Independence Day!

Zito i Ellada!

Zito i Ameriki!

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