Former Utah governor Mike Leavitt said Sunday that he enjoys his role as part of President Bush's Cabinet but admitted to a twinge of homesickness as he spoke at the America's Freedom Festival at Provo Patriotic Service.

Of his service as director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Leavitt said, "It's rewarding, but I miss you (Utahns)."

Leavitt said that as he participated as the grand marshal during Saturday's parade, he was "struck by how much like a neighborhood a crowd of 250,000 people can feel and how many (parade watchers) seemed genuinely familiar."

In an interview before his speech Sunday night, Leavitt told the Deseret Morning News that serving in Washington has changed and broadened his perspective on many things, including Independence Day.

"There are certainly many official reminders around that freedom is not something that is easily obtained," he said.

Leavitt said what played on his mind the most while preparing his speech was the recent shift of power in Iraq.

"The proximity of Iraq receiving its sovereignty and the United States celebrating its 228th anniversary seemed to have a kind of symmetry to me, and that's what I've been thinking about, and wanted to talk about," Leavitt added.

Leavitt focused much of his address on Iraq and the parallels he sees with America's own fight to ensure freedom and democracy.

"We declared our independence in 1776 over what our forebears called 'a history of repeated injuries' — 'usurpations' — and 'absolute despotism,' " he said. "It was Thomas Jefferson who expressed a hope that generations after his would . . . sympathize with the oppressed wherever found and, in his words, 'prove their love of liberty beyond their own share of it.' "

Leavitt said the struggles of Afghanistan and Iraq were part of the way America has fulfilled that hope.

He added that the war in Iraq was fought by "a new generation of defenders and liberators" who reflect the courage of patriots of old.

"It is not so different from the America of 1776 when we defied a king and seized our own destiny," he said. "We are still very capable of dumping the tea."

Leavitt drew laughter from the audience when he then added, "Although as administrator of the EPA I would have to insist on cleanup and remediation of the harbor afterward."

The Patriotic Service is held in the LDS church-owned Marriott Center on the Brigham Young University campus, and past speakers have all been affiliated with the LDS Church — members of the Quorum of the Twelve, Area Authority Elder John Groberg, and Sherry L. Dew, former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency.