n 1630, my great-grandfather many times over led a journey across the ocean, fleeing persecution. And he gave a sermon on the deck of the Arabella that has been invoked by leaders as different as President Kennedy and President Reagan. John Winthrop talked about what it meant to be a “City upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us.” He knew that a historic moment had to be met with historic resolve because the world was watching.

Well today, all the eyes of the world are on South Sudan. The world is watching to see if this new nation will fall into the all-too-common sectarian conflict and corruption that some say is inevitable, or whether you can meet the loftier challenge of history and the dictate of your own aspirations—whether you will affirm your long struggle by making an even longer commitment to get to that better place.

Yeats wrote about those hinge points of human events when we can, as he said, “make hope and history rhyme.” This is your nation, but this is the world’s opportunity to match your hopes for all of history—and together we can stand together and make sure that what you do at this moment stands the test of history.