Today marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States’s Declaration of Independence and the beginning of becoming a new nation. On this day, we celebrate when representatives of 13 colonies sign their own death warrant, announcing that they wanted to be a nation free from the rule of the mother country, England. At the time, it seemed like an improbable dream, but today we celebrate its reality as a major turning point in human history.
There are many who want to talk about problems the country faces today, but this blog will be talking about everything that we have accomplished as a people, gotten through, and the values that define us, regardless of who runs the White House. After all, love the U.S. or hate it, if you live here then it’s the only country we got and it’s all we know. So for that reason, this post will take a look at its history up to today.
From its inception, the U.S. became the first country to be fully based on the ideas and principles of John Locke, a man who believed that there are three rights that can be guaranteed protection by the government. Those rights were life, liberty, and property (though changed to the “Pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence). Those ideas struggled to take hold in Europe, but we were the first to develop a government fully based on his principles.
From there, we survived a war against what was at the time the greatest empire on the planet. Fresh off of a major defeat of the French, Britain went on to find that our war made maintaining its colonies here too costly. From there, we had won our freedom for self-governance and for the protection of the rights of the American people.
The next century was not an easy one. Almost immediately, we saw debating over our government structure that gave birth to the document that serves as the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, where our federal government was divided into three parts, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. From there, we saw fighting over what monetary structure we should have, whether power is vested in the states or the federal government, and how much influence politicians should have over political appointments or how much influence the federal government should have over business. At the same time, we expanded to the Pacific Ocean, ended slavery, and became the dominant force in the Americas.
That would set us up for greatness in the 20th Century. In that century, we oversaw the end of all the historic European Empires, defeated fascism and Soviet communism, and became the dominant world power. We also brought about new technologies that redefined the world from the first electric television to mass producing the car to the vaccine for polio to masterminding the first flight at Kittyhawk. We even put a man on the moon and remain the only country to do so. In short, we’ve redefined the world and accomplished so much that our nation truly is exceptional.
The reason for writing all that today is to remind the average American of our shared heritage and culture. We’ve accomplished so much, continue to stay the dominant country across the globe, and continue to maintain the government our founding fathers left us. Remembering how some countries haven’t made it this far, our 250 years is quite the accomplishment.
For that reason, let’s take today to celebrate our shared home. Let’s get involved in our local community and be grateful for where we live. So, this 4th of July, Happy Birthday America and here’s to another 250 years.
