The largest Fourth of July celebration held anywhere outside the United States has been held annually since 1912 in a national park outside Rebild, Denmark.
 

Prominent Americans are always asked to speak. That list has included Walter Cronkite, Walt Disney, Danny Kaye, Art Buchwald and Richard Chamberlain.

RC: Thank you. Your Royal Highness, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Ambassador, and Mr. President, I’m very honored to be here and very moved by this joyous expression of friendship between our two distant but very close nations and I’d like to take this time to thank my Danish hosts and Rebild for the most generous, gracious, friendly, and humorous reception I’ve ever received in my life. (Danish phrase spoken). 
 

We all know that we humans are recklessly abusing this spinning ball of Earth, which we live on and which gives us life. I’ll leave it to others more scientifically inclined than I to discuss the myriad problems of the damage, the pollution, and the practical remedies. 
It seems to me that there is another area of these immense problems, which is rarely discussed, and that is our personal relationship or lack of it with the Earth, with nature. 
My premise is this: if we love the Earth the way we love the person dearest to us, the way we love our families, the way we love our home, we couldn’t possibly abuse it and devour it the way we’re doing now. There was a time when our ancestors living on the land, hunting, growing their own crops were freely aware of the obvious fact that they were part of nature’s family. That the Earth created and sustained them, and that Earth, seas, and sky were teeming with life, full of spirit and meaning. Well, all that has changed-how most of us live far from nature, in man made cities; the animals, fish, and plants that we eat are no longer our respected fellow beings just little bits of food that happen to arrive in convenient packages. We just don’t know the Earth anymore. We’ve fallen out of love. Even some of our religions deny the holiness of nature that place God and goodness elsewhere. We’ve somehow come to believe that humans were dropped down on the Earth from some spiritually superior plane; that while we’re here we may use this inert, dumb planet anyway we please and then when we die we whiz back to some nirvana or heaven where we really belong. 
 

The American Indians had a totally different relationship with the Earth. A sense of oneness with nature, which can, if we consider it deeply, can teach us a great deal. This profound relationship with nature was brilliantly expressed by Chief Seattle in about 1854. 
The Federal government was making inquiries about buying the Indian lands from some of the tribes in the northwest and Chief Seattle wrote the following to the president:
“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you sell or buy the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air, the sparkle of the water, how can you buy it? Every part of this Earth is sacred to us. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap that courses through the trees as we know blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the Earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, and the deer, the great eagle are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man are all part of the same family. 

The shining water that moves in streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land you must remember that it is sacred, each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers . They quench our thirst, they carry our canoes, and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother. 

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is a precious thing. That the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our father his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where man can go to taste the wind sweetened by the meadow flowers. 

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the Earth is our mother. What befalls the Earth befalls all the sons of the Earth. This we know. The Earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the Earth. All things are connected by the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does with the web, he does also to himself.
 

One thing we know, our God is your God. The Earth is precious to Him and to harm the Earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone. Where will the eagle be? Gone. And what is to say goodbye to the pony? And the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival. When the last red man has vanished from his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving over the prairie will these shores and forests still be there? Will there be any part of the spirit of my people left?

We love this Earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land, as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it as God loves us all. As we are part of the land, you, too, are part of the land. This Earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know, there is only one God. No man, be he red man or white man, can be apart. We are brothers after all.”
 

It would be my wish for all of us that we might spend a bit more time and a bit more deep thought about our relationship to this glorious place where we live. And then perhaps, the sacrifices we’re going to have to make for the environment will be motivated not only by our need for self-preservation but by love.

Thank you.