Fun, food, frivolity, flags, fanfare, fireworks provide fantastic ways to celebrate freedom. The exuberance of foreign visitors to the USA for the World Cup quickly remind us how fortunate we are to live here. Personally, I was blessed because my grandparents as young adults, chose to leave the hardships of Poland and Italy during World War I to immigrate to Ellis Island, and ultimately settle in Philadelphia. The cities‘s name means “brotherly love”, and I took for granted my entire childhood visiting the birthplace of freedom: Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House, Carpenters and Constitution Halls, the famous Liberty Bell, old taverns, and streets that the founders occupied. We may travel and marvel at ancient cities elsewhere in the world, that helps us to recognize that the US is so young. But it makes the accomplishments of the short time even more spectacular.

My unique opportunities enhance my perspective. I have been blessed to work with, hire and train doctors from many countries. I have managed patients from elite leaders to people from the street. That is what a presence in Philadelphia brought to me as one of the premier cancer centers in the world during my residency. Recently, I have been blessed to care for people in Florida navigating their way to our centers for state-of-the-art therapy unavailable in their countries.
Our own US medical societies are now evaluating and accrediting centers around the world to help raise their standards and make them also centers of excellence, most recently Dubai and Saudi Arabia. We work diligently with research abroad and trials that incorporate a wide range of nationalities. Cancer care requires continued search for innovation and researchers across the globe are eager to share knowledge and experience and make their work available to this precious country. One of the greatest forces in the US is that we are never complacent and we are always striving for excellence. We push the limits. We do not wait for permission. Across every specialty in medicine and every innovation and industry, we continue to pioneer.

This freedom 250 celebration is a way to remind us that we are fortunate, we are blessed, we are fearless, and we know no bounds. We are, each one of us, an amazing powerful part of this American Experiment. Cherishing our homeland and each other is the best way to celebrate and continue our expectation that everything is possible. May freedom continue to ring today and always as we continue to protect, defend, cherish and love. God Bless America.