Denise Meridith

And I'm the CEO of Denise Merida Consultants. This is the 25th anniversary of my S Corp. It's a public relations company here in the United States. And I want to say, one, I'm very grateful to be invited to speak to you today. And I'm also very grateful to be an American.

I had two great parents. I had a dad who grew up on a ranch in Texas, married to a woman who grew up in the ghettos of Harlem. What an American story. And what they did for me is teach me never to say, or never to take no for an answer, never to think that you can't do something. So I was able to go from being a poor black kid, female, in Brooklyn, to managing, successfully managing one of the top money-making, and I said money-making, federal agencies in the United States, with 10,000 employees and a billion dollar budget.

But I want to say today is this year, I'm going around the country telling everybody to be proud to be an American, but more importantly, to be proud of all Americans, wherever they come from, race, sex, gender, age, doesn't matter. We're all Americans. We will rise together or fall together. Let's keep America strong. Do what Jesus would do and would say. Love your neighbor.

Thanks everyone. I hope you have a great rest of this 250th year. Thank you.