Part of me wanted to spend the nation’s 250th birthday listening to patriotic music, watching fireworks, eating hot dogs, and reflecting on the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights—and on the Reconstruction amendments and the Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights Movements to expand the promise of those documents.
I wanted to celebrate each of these things and other steps taken to extend the benefits of democracy. I wanted to applaud them. And I wanted to feel good because of them. But I couldn’t, at least not nearly to the extent that I wanted.
Don’t get me wrong. I prize what these building blocks of a free society represent and have brought to our country. I’m thankful for them every day.
But part of me kept remembering how our European ancestors took this land from Indigenous people and practiced what can only be characterized as genocide against them. How they brought African people here and enslaved them and later worked to reverse Reconstruction reforms through Jim Crow laws and myriad other discriminatory practices, not to mention hate organizations like the KKK.
How our country prohibited women from voting for nearly two centuries. How we imprisoned Japanese Americans during WWII. How members of the Know-Nothing political party and others like them abhorred and discriminated against immigrants in the mid-1800s. And how many Americans today don’t remember that they themselves descended from immigrants and so, like the Know-Nothings before them, they hate and discriminate against new ones.
I kept remembering how those in power in Washington and elsewhere today are employing a variety of measures to ensure that we ignore and forget all of these dark aspects of our nation’s history.
And I kept thinking how, thanks to that crew, our country was missing the opportunity for a thoughtfully crafted, reflective, dignified, useful, and also enjoyable national commemorative experience on this particularly important anniversary.
The tyrannical outfit in charge is anything but thoughtful, reflective, dignified, or useful. They are attempting to erase history they don’t like from national parks and museums, withholding federal support from universities and cultural organizations that rightly don’t want us to forget it, denying irrefutable truths in Critical Race Theory, and inspiring and supporting the banning of books that contain ideas they don’t like.
Not to mention eliminating DEI initiatives everywhere they can, removing Black leaders in government and the military whenever possible, characterizing the January 6 rioters as patriots instead of traitors who wanted freedom only for themselves, attacking the existence and work of a free press, doing everything possible to restrict voting rights, and using the excuse of national security to justify imprisoning innocent men, women, and children without real cause or due process.
I also kept wondering how it is that so many among us see these things happening and not only ignore them, but support them. I know some of the reasons, of course. They vary from person to person: lack of even a rudimentary knowledge of history, lack of empathy, misinformation and conspiracy theories aired tirelessly on right-wing radio, television, and podcasts then amplified on social media, and, worst of all, hatred or fear of those who are different.
We’ve never had a perfect president of the United States. But we have had some who rose to comparative greatness despite flaws and some who perhaps did not but accomplished some great things nevertheless. Washington, Lincoln, and FDR stand at the head of the class in the opinion of most presidential historians, and Truman, LBJ, and the other Roosevelt fall easily into the second category.
Remembering these on the nation’s 250th birthday should have been a positive experience. But I couldn’t think about them without also thinking about how our country came to elect the present occupant of the White House not once but twice.
Anyone who is truly paying attention and has no ulterior motive, such as some personal prejudice or particular policy or cause to which they are committed above all else and which aligns somehow with what they see in that guy, should recognize that the distance between him and the second worst president we’ve ever had—pick whichever one you want—is the about the same as the distance from the Earth to the edge of the Universe and that he is a danger to all of us.
The primary thing that got me past all the current negative stuff for at least a little while this past July 4 morning was putting our politically polluted national capital out of mind for a bit and focusing on all of the town, community, and family celebrations that would be going on around the country. And how many in these gatherings would be remembering the good things in our history and the women and men—including not only veterans but also advocates for social change—who sacrificed to achieve and preserve them.
I also thought about Black Americans (like US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, whom I once had the honor of hosting at the Strong Museum), who, despite our history of slavery and our ongoing discrimination, pledge allegiance to our flag, serve in our armed forces, and exercise important leadership roles aimed at preserving our democratic processes and making them better.
And about Native Americans who do the same. And about immigrants who do also. And about the untold numbers of people in other countries who want desperately to be part of what we already have and sacrifice so much in striving for it. These things felt uplifting.
Then someone sent me a link to a speech that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave about patriotism the day before, on July 3. It was the icing on my personal need for a “positive-spin-on-the-day” cake.
Mamdani is a controversial figure who galvanizes both ends of the political spectrum. But whatever people may think of him, no one can logically deny that he is smart and articulate. What he said as New York and the nation approached this Independence Day was historically accurate, relatively non-partisan by today’s standards, and well worth listening to and thinking about. He forthrightly combined history with hope, a too-scarce commodity we need more of these days. (You can watch and hear his remarks here.)
So, I felt better until the next day when I learned that on the Fourth, the president’s Domestic Policy Council, which is made up of cabinet members with not a historian among them, issued a 160-page report titled “Saving America’s Story” condemning the Smithsonian Institution for attempting to “erase” the country’s “heritage”—the very thing that the council itself seeks to do. The report is one of the follow-ons to the president’s ahistorical March 2025 Executive Order 14253 titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” These two things are as contrary to history as any look at the past possibly can be. (You can read the report here.)
But, similar to what happened for me on July 4, after seeing the policy council’s report on the fifth, I also came across an interview with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on Meet the Press. In a calm and dignified manner, he talked about a new exhibit, American Aspirations, mounted to celebrate the 250th birthday in the recently reopened original Smithsonian building, known as “The Castle,” constructed in 1855.
Noting that the Preamble of the US Constitution refers to a more perfect Union, not the most perfect Union,” Bunch spoke about our founding documents being aspirational and our nation being a work in progress. A descendent of slaves, a man whose grandfather was a sharecropper, this distinguished historian, while recognizing the nation’s mistakes, also recognized its positive steps forward and conveyed both pride in America and, like Mamdani, hope going forward. This was a scoop of ice cream on top of my “positive-spin-on-the-day” cake. (You can listen to the interview here.)
A note about this post: This is the first blog I have distributed in more than two years, and it’s longer than normal. Three months ago, I posted one about why I was taking a break from blogging with the intention of eventually resuming, but for various reasons I didn’t distribute it. Now I’m back on track, and you can read that earlier blog here. It’s short, by the way. Unless you let me know you prefer otherwise, you will receive others from time to time. If you know anyone else who might like to get them, please invite them to inform me via the Contact page (see below). You can also use that page to tell me not to send you future posts. I won’t hold it against you.
To get in touch with me, reply to the blog distribution email or email me via the Contact page.