Matthew McConaughey 4th of July Speech Transcript: America "Going Through Puberty"

Matthew McConaughey: (00:01) Happy birthday, America. Yes, indeed! Matthew McConaughey: (00:04) As we celebrate our independence today, as we celebrate our birth as a nation, a day that kick-started a revolution to gain our sovereignty, let's admit that this last year's trip around the sun was also another head-scratcher, but let's also remember that ... We are babies. You know? As a country, we were basically going through puberty in comparison to other countries' timelines. And we're going to go through growing pains. We are going through growing pains. This is not an excuse, to say. This is just a reality. Matthew McConaughey: (00:36) And this is good because we got to keep learning. We got to keep maturing. We got to keep striving. We got to keep climbing. We got to keep building. And we got to make sure we maintain hope along the way as we continue to evolve. Why? Because it's who we are. Why? Because the alternative sucks. Matthew McConaughey: (00:55) I believe that America, and you and I, I believe we're an aspiration. Right? We're constantly in motion. We're on the way, trying to get wiser, trying to get braver, trying to dream more, trying to do more, trying to be more fair, take the right kind of responsibilities, to gain the right kind of freedoms. And we got to to keep realizing that we're a place where our individual pursuits and desires need to be appreciative and supportive of our collective responsibilities as Americans, hence the United States of America. Sure, we're each unique. We're each independent. We each have innate abilities that others don't have, as people and as states. But at the same time, we are all in this together. And if you don't purchase that, move on. Go somewhere else. Matthew McConaughey: (01:45) So as we celebrate the red, white, and blue this weekend, let's be sure and just reflect just a minute. Take a little bit of inventory on where we've come from, where we are, and how and where we want to go from here, on the way to being the best we can be. Matthew McConaughey: (02:01) Now what if that was a song that each of us just said, "I can't not sing that song." I want to be a little bit better. You want to be a little bit better. Let's be on the way to being the best we can be. Let's make that a song we can't not sing. Why? Because it's who we are. It's who we got to be. And again, the alternative sucks. Matthew McConaughey: (02:24) Let's rock, America. Happy birthday. Just keep living. I'll see you there.