I was 12 years old when America celebrated its Bicentennial. I remember the tall ships, the Bicentennial coin, Schoolhouse Rock!, and fireworks. Although my parents didn’t go as far as some who installed red, white, and blue shag carpet—and like a friend, I didn’t paint myself the colors of the American flag—my youthful memories are celebratory.
Only later did I realize that beneath those celebrations, the country was wrestling with profound questions about its future. The energy crisis, the Vietnam War, Watergate, significant Supreme Court decisions, and growing demands for equal participation in civic life were front of mind for many Americans, reshaping American life, squeezing family budgets, and shaking trust in democratic institutions.
Today, our institutions, economy, and culture have been transformed by those events, along with developments that would have seemed unimaginable in 1976—new technologies, scientific breakthroughs, globalization, the rise and fall of nations, and new norms. For most Americans, those issues are deeply connected to fundamental questions about democracy itself. What does that mean for America in its 250th year?
I believe we should celebrate and defend the aspirational ideals in the Declaration of Independence, which are foundational to a robust democratic culture of equality, liberty, and the rule of law—principles that must animate our constitutional republic.
I believe we should celebrate and defend the aspirational ideals in the Declaration of Independence.
Our country’s Semiquincentennial is not a celebration of a mythical past. Across generations, individuals wrestled with the ideas and actions that ultimately created the United States. Debate was robust and passionate; differences were sharp; nations and cultures clashed; difficult, and sometimes disastrous, decisions were made; families were divided. Out of that struggle emerged an aspirational American creed.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
The idea of America was beautifully framed 250 years ago and later given life and expanded through the Constitution and its amendments. It bound us together not by race, ethnicity, or religious commitment but by the belief that the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and self-government are afforded to all who are born or naturalized here. Those principles are a gift worthy of celebration—even as our work continues, even as we acknowledge that our country has never been perfect and must continue the work of becoming more so.
The idea of America was beautifully framed 250 years ago and later given life and expanded through the Constitution and its amendments.
The ideas articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the rights embedded in the Constitution give us the tools we need to do the work democracy demands. That work has been and will continue to be challenging. Like those who came before us, we will struggle, debate, protest, vigorously disagree, and make difficult choices. But in keeping with the advice a Haudenosaunee chief offered Benjamin Franklin in 1744, guidance that shaped Franklin’s thinking as he helped craft the new country: “Whatever befalls you, do not fall out with one another.”
A Haudenosaunee chief offered Benjamin Franklin advice in 1744: “Whatever befalls you, do not fall out with one another.”
That is hard work—building and strengthening a democracy and doing it together. However, as President Kennedy reminded us during our first race to the moon, we choose to do difficult and important things, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
That is what urges us to celebrate the aspirational idea that is America, as we continue to strive toward a more perfect union.