250 Years In: Still a Work in Progress
I remember when this country turned a spry 200. I was young enough that my mother had to explain what “bicentennial” meant. I marched in the parade in the Martha Washington costume she had sewn. Yes, that is me with my brothers and sister as we prepare to decamp, as they say.
The country was celebrating with the kind of communal joy that feels almost quaint now, with school pageants, town parades, and neighborhood events.
Now, as our Nation approaches its 250th birthday, I’ve been thinking about what this anniversary means to me personally. My roots in this country go back to the Revolutionary War. My grandmother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR, as it’s known, is a lineage society: to be eligible, you have to prove direct descent from an ancestor who served the patriot cause during the Revolution.
And yet my children are first-generation Americans. Children of an immigrant. They are, in a very literal sense, the embodiment of what it means to be American. They carry both deep roots and new ones. The oldest ambitions of this country and the ongoing hope that we can be better.
This nation was built on conflict and compromise. Dreamed into being by men who wrote beautifully about liberty while enslaving other human beings. It was forged through a revolution fought on ideals that took generations — and counting — to extend to everyone. The aspiration was real. So was the failure to fully live up to it.
Being an American means enjoying the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. Being a patriot means doing the hard work of civic engagement.
Rights without responsibility are just privilege. The freedoms we inherit — of speech, of assembly, of participation in our own governance — carry with them an obligation to use them. To vote. To show up at a town hall. To know your neighbors and your neighborhood. That is what separates a citizen from a bystander.
So yes, celebrate. The birthday is real and worth marking.
But real patriotism is more than carrying the flag. It means carrying the torch. The most American thing you can do right now is stay engaged and doing the work of making this a more perfect union — not because it’s perfect, but because it can be more so. That is the American experiment. It always has been.
Happy 250th, America.