Celebrating America After 250 Years

I read an interesting article recently about America’s upcoming 250-year celebration that inspired me to write this article (please remember, my “inspiration meter” is set pretty low).

When we talk about the upcoming July 4th, we inevitably talk about it being the 250th birthday of the United States. In fact, this past New Year’s Eve, the first image projected on the Washington Monument to start the year was a 250-foot birthday candle. But is this really the way we should refer to this upcoming historic day for America. Birthdays usually don’t celebrate the birth itself; it marks the time since that moment. Happy 40th birthday doesn’t celebrate the day you were born but the day you reached 40 years on this earth. Birthdays may talk about the road you travelled during that time and the growth and development following your birth but not your actual birth; after all, you and I didn’t accomplish a lot on the day of our birth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we shouldn’t celebrate the growth and development of this great nation – we should. America has grown immensely since 1776 and accomplished much. It’s the reason so many people have a desire to come to this country, legally and illegally. But this 250th celebration is more than a mere birthday. Much, much more.

Many use the word “anniversary” to mark this upcoming event. A wedding anniversary comes close and is a surprisingly appropriate analogy. A wedding marks a commitment to start something together; to start on a path together to become more than just one. One of the many things we should celebrate on July 4th is this commitment 250 years ago to start down this road together. At times, this might seem counterintuitive, our founding fathers committing us to start something together, since the Declaration of Independence came from a decision to separate ourselves from British rule, not unite. But the Declaration starts by describing itself as “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Note that the word “united” is not capitalized…at that time it was a description not a proper name. So, the Declaration of Independence not only announced a break from British rule but a joining of the thirteen colonies. (I wrote an article on exactly this topic of unity that was published in the Grassroot Conservative eMagazine, Issue 12, published July 16, 2025. I would invite you to read it if you missed it.)

I like to go back in history to get inspired by words written by great Americans that I can strive to match but likely never will. History is what motivates me to try and write better each and every time I sit down at my keyboard. I go back to Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech – the Gettysburg Address. It begins with words so many of us will never erase from our internal hard drive: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Take a moment and think about what these words really mean. They are truly inspirational on what our founding fathers “conceived” and “brought forth” in this “new nation” – the United States of America. We should celebrate what these men did and how far we have come since that day.

America was founded almost 250 years ago…you and I were not its founders, we inherited it. I was born here, as many of you were, and my lovely bride legally immigrated and is now a proud American who has fully embraced her citizenship, as many before her did. While we are not founders or descended from the original founders, we did and continue to do our best to make America better. I think it is incumbent upon us to leave things better than we found it. I would hope all American citizens feel the same (despite what I see daily on the news). This is one of the motivations for my serving 24 years in the Army; I felt an obligation to this great country (the three generations of my family born in America have all had men that served in the military).

I am writing this article on Martin Luther King Day. A very great man, in my humble opinion, who did much to advance civil rights in this country. So, I thought it appropriate to end this article by saying no matter how much division I see in our government and among its citizens, “I have a dream,” too, of a better America. As The Reverend Doctor King said so eloquently, “…we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” As we begin to celebrate America’s 250th year, let’s all try to live by Dr. King’s words of non-violence and conducting any struggle we might face “on the high plane of dignity and discipline” and not “degenerate into physical violence.”​

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Jerry Hashimura
Pahrump, NV 

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