WE the People: Reflections on our 250th

Happy birthday, America. We made it to 250 years—with elegant ideals and imperfect execution. With bold dreams and broken promises. With remarkable progress and painful setbacks.

Major milestones require reflection and a reckoning. For me, it is the concept of WE that most resonates with me at this 250-year mark.

Our History

The Declaration of Independence was revolutionary not because it created a nation overnight, but because it declared that human rights existed before government. Eleven years later, the Constitution would begin with three words that continue to challenge us today: We the People.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The bold vision of these founding documents was that power lay with the people, not the government. That people have certain rights. That the government could not strip them from us. That people could govern themselves, without a king, a monarch or an emperor.

The Place We Find Ourselves

At this point in time, in the US, and across the globe, there are conflicting emotions. Some are celebrating, others are mourning. Some are hopeful, others are in despair. Some want to look back, others forward. Some see opportunities, others live in fear.

As a nation, we appear to be irrevocably divided. I would agree that we are.

Yet I believe we have reached another defining moment. We must decide whether we are willing to continue this grand experiment—and whether we can govern ourselves well enough to fulfill the vision set before us.

What was bold and revolutionary about the founding documents is that the power of governing was given to the people – the WE. Not the states, not the senate, not the president. They are representatives of the people, elected to serve rather than to dictate. To pledge loyalty to our shared agreement, the constitution, rather than a party or a person.

WE the People is Our Higher Ideal

We have a constitution that has held for 250 years, yet is tested, over and over again.  We had a bold promise of freedom for all, yet began with a definition of who mattered as way too small for our vision.

How has a nation managed to sustain a constitutional experiment for 250 years while continually expanding its definition of "We the People"?

WE. Us. All of us, not some of us. The collective, with all the differences that can define us, if we don’t allow them to divide us.

The great promise of America was (and is) our diversity. The melting pot. The place where all were welcome. Where immigrants could come and make a new life for themselves.

This is the big WE, not the small one.

“WE” is messy.  “We" is inherently harder than "me." It asks us to listen before concluding, to compromise without surrendering our convictions, and to remain in relationship with people whose experiences differ from our own.

The story of our nation is one of great vision and imperfect execution.

America has done remarkable things.

America has done terrible things.

Both are true.

The challenge of maturity is resisting the temptation to erase either.

The fight for civil rights began at our founding and continues to this day, continually expanding the circle of those deserving of these rights.

These battles come at a cost, for if one includes the silent deaths, such as the enslaved, the abolitionists, the Civil War soldiers, the Reconstruction activists, lynching victims, hundreds of thousands of people have died on US soil in the quest to expand civil rights.

And we are not done yet.

Many Americans worry that hard-won rights remain fragile. Others fear that cherished traditions are disappearing. Whatever our perspective, history reminds us that expanding the promise of "We the People" has always required courage, participation, and vigilance.

I would argue that it is time to come together, to do the work, to collectively commit to the vision that WE the people can form a more perfect union.

WE Requires Something from Each of Us

The Declaration of Independence begins with these words: We hold these truths to be self-evident:

Note that the word “truths” is plural. There is not one truth – there are many.

It can be true that:

• Individual ambition flourishes best when paired with collective purpose.

• Free speech is enhanced with thoughtful listening.

• Individual rights and civic obligations are complements.

• We can be united yet diverse.

• We can be proud of our progress and own our imperfections.

• We are 250 years old and still striving for better.

Perhaps the work begins closer to home than Washington. It begins around dinner tables, in board rooms, in classrooms, on social media, and in neighborhoods. Every conversation where we choose curiosity over certainty, listening over labeling, and participation over withdrawal is another small act of becoming "WE the People."

WE Have Survived Division Before

Let’s remind ourselves that this is not the first time we’ve been deeply divided. There was considerable debate and dissent over the country's founding. The Civil War divided North and South for four terrible years, resulting in the deaths of 2% of the population, one of the most deadly wars in our history (although more died from disease than combat).

With age comes both wisdom and nostalgia. The realization that we’ve grown into the lofty vision the founding fathers articulated and that there is still so much more to do. Reckoning with the reality that America has been a force for freedom and has also denied freedom. That we have demonstrated remarkable progress and persistent inequities.

And that we are both deeply divided and deeply connected. That we are one nation and one shared fate.

At 250, perhaps the most patriotic act is neither blind celebration nor relentless criticism. Perhaps it is the willingness to hold both gratitude and responsibility—to appreciate how far we've come while accepting our role in what comes next.

Perhaps America's greatest challenge at 250 is not choosing between competing narratives. Perhaps it is learning to hold them both long enough to discover a wiser path forward. We can honor our history and learn from it. We can move forward together, even with our unique differences.

The American story is not something we inherit. It is something we continue to write.

I, for one, would like to write a story where WE the people build a nation worthy of another 250 years.