The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
America is getting up in years. Well, we’re still toddlers compared to international ancients such as Iran (founded 3200 B.C.) and Egypt (3100 B.C.). But if we survive until July 4, 2026, our nation will reach the venerable age of 250 years.
How shall we celebrate the occasion? Former President Donald Trump has some ideas.
Recently Trump proposed, if he is elected, a yearlong celebration of our 250 years of nationhood. He says that we should prepare “a most spectacular birthday party. We want to make it the best of all time.”
Trump envisions an American State Fair at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, an exhibition showcasing “the glory of every state in the union.”
He proposes Patriot Games, a year of “major sporting contests for high school athletes.” And he says that he will sign an executive order to create a National Garden of American Heroes. He wants to immediately commission artists for the first 100 statues in a new park “honoring the greatest Americans of all time.”
“It’s gonna be great.”
Some of these may not be bad ideas, but it’s hard to ignore the whiff of bread and circuses from a candidate who wishes to be our president again. After all, Iowa is an important early primary state, and Trump knows that Americans love few things more than sports.
But a National Garden of American Heroes? Haven’t we already had enough trouble with statues? Trump probably has statuary candidates in mind, but is our country currently in a mood to decide who the 100 greatest Americans of all time are?
Trump has a flair for the spectacular, but I wonder if a more constrained celebration of our nation’s founding would be more meaningful. Certainly on July 4, 2026, we should have parades, speeches, ceremonies and flyovers; all nations are drawn together by a little pomp and circumstance. But are there better ways to celebrate our 250th birthday? Here are three possibilities:
We could encourage a national commitment by all Americans to read a substantial biography of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. Citizens who complete this task would get a medal or ribbon or certificate; Trump will think of something.
In many respects the nation that we know today began some fourscore and seven years after 1776, when we embraced union and equality, finally putting an end to 250 years of slavery and beginning our long, halting slog toward equal rights for all, a worthy journey that we’re still on.
This is a story that every American should know, and nothing tells it better than the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Second: Let’s sponsor a contest or lottery that sends, say, 1,000 families at public expense to visit the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, Mass.
During the Siege of Boston in 1775, colonials repulsed two assaults before being overrun by 3,000 British regulars, losing the battle but demonstrating that our incipient nation was prepared to fight for independence and was a worthy match for the British. And like nearly all battlefields — Shiloh, Gettysburg, Normandy — Bunker Hill reminds us that, alas, nationhood nearly always involves bloodshed, as well as the courage of citizens willing to fight for it.
Finally, how about something practical that we can do at home? On July 4, 2026, let’s all go into our backyards and burn an American flag. Actually, let’s NOT do that and imagine that we did. The symbol itself deserves some degree of respect.
But our commitment to free speech makes us near-unique among world nations, virtually all of which punish desecration of national symbols. The fact that we have the courage and self-confidence to permit that sort of speech is itself worth celebrating.
A human life isn’t cleanly analogous to the life of a nation, but as I get older, birthdays seem less about celebration and more about reflection. How many birthdays we’ve had is less important than what they mean. Focusing for a few days in 2026 on what America really means would be a fine way to celebrate the birthday of our great nation.
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