It has now been 249 years since the United States declared its independence from the British Empire. The lofty ideals etched into the parchment of the Declaration of Independence— “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”—continue to ring through the American conscience. But this July 4th, as I stood in the heart of the Royal Palm neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, those words felt both present and painfully distant.