This weekend, the United States turned 250 years old. Happy Semiquincentennial! I hope you had a great time with friends, family, and festivals. Now that the fireworks have ended, it is worth reflecting on what we are celebrating, and what it has to do with Greater New Orleans.
It began with the river. When New Orleans joined the American experiment through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the nation gained a port that turned the continental interior into a thriving economy. To this day, the grain, steel, and goods of America reach the world through our gateway, one of the busiest port complexes on Earth.
We fueled the country, too. From the first offshore wells in the Gulf to today’s LNG exports and emerging low-carbon industries, Louisiana energy has powered American factories, homes, and strength abroad. When I recently visited Venture Global LNG, there was a ship bound for Belgium, whom we play tonight in the World Cup.
We have defended the world. Andrew Higgins and his 20,000 workers – one of the first fully integrated workforces in the South – built the landing craft that carried Allied troops onto the beaches of Normandy, an innovation Eisenhower credited with winning World War II.
Then we reached for the heavens. Every rocket stage that carried Americans to the Moon was built at Michoud in New Orleans East. Michoud is building them again today, assembling the core of NASA’s Artemis rockets that will return humanity to the lunar surface, and then Mars.
Entrepreneurship, an American hallmark, has always been organic to New Orleans. The city’s unique antebellum social structure enabled African American entrepreneurs, merchants, and artisans to accumulate significant generational wealth, resulting in one of the highest concentrations of millionaires of color in the country.
And through it all, we gave America so much of its iconic quality of life: jazz, born here and exported everywhere, and a culture of food, family, and celebration that defines what the world loves about this country. (We can’t claim ranch dressing; that honor goes to Nebraska.)
Two hundred fifty years on, the work of America, like the work of economic development, remains the same: building places where the economy grows, where life is good, and where “everyone” means everyone. That is our mission at GNO, Inc., and it is, in the truest sense, patriotic work.
Happy 250th, America. From the region that helped feed you, fuel you, defend you, and make life richer for you, congratualtions. The project continues.
