To the editor,

As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday this summer, we the people should consider our origins, recognize how far we’ve come, and focus on our future. 

The constitution, our seminal document, is a work of art. Our founding leaders crafted it to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” The governing documents they created, and the exciting and dynamic formation of our democracy are worthy of praise and recognition. We’ve come so far!

Even though we are a relatively new country by comparison with other nations–Chinese civilization goes back over 4,000 years, Iran’s over 2,500 years, and England at least 1,100 years–what we lack in longevity we make up for in our forward-thinking, growth-oriented approach to ongoing improvement, and our focus on “making it new.” 

Until MAGA happened.

To be clear, I have no quarrel with the “Make America Great” portion of MAGA; I take issue, though, with “AGAIN” at the end of the phrase. It’s that little word, frankly, that is causing all the division, fighting, and unrest in our beautiful “land of the free” today, and we are at a crossroads. 

We have failed to appreciate our nation in relation to the rest of the world. We are too mired in a misguided sense of nostalgia. Perhaps we are attempting to convince ourselves we are older and wiser than we really are as a nation.  

Instead of misremembering “the good old days” and “the way things used to be,” we should be celebrating how far we’ve come in such a short time, and how much potential we truly possess as a leading nation in the world.

If after 250 years, we decide to call our past mistakes “great,” and yearn to return to times in our history where people were persecuted, science was unpopular, and ⅔ of our population was oppressed, then we have done the opposite of what our founders set out to do.

This summer as we celebrate 250 years as a nation, we should be proud of our democracy, proud of how much we’ve learned, and excited about what’s to come by focusing on the future, not on some mythical past. 

Laurie Harmon

Hudson