Has the Dargan Boy gone bonkers? Is he lost for words? Or is he having a spelling ‘Bee’ issue?
None of the above!
If you are wondering what ‘semiquincentennial’ actually means ~ it is quite simple.
It means the United States is having its ‘250th’ birthday. From the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 to that July 4, 2026 this week represents a birthday of 250 years.
My, my, my, it seems like a long time, doesn’t it?
Have you paused to reflect upon your own history?
John Adams, the second President, in a letter to his wife Abigail, said the signing of the Declaration was a good reason to have ‘an anniversary festival’ by future generations.
He further suggested that we should celebrate with pomp and parade, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illumination from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.
And many Americans today still embrace Adams’ words and celebrate the holiday like no other.
Speeches of independence, songs, parades and joyful activities with red, white and blue attire are prominent in the streets and across the land. Adams would be happy!
‘Freedom,’ it appears, is worthy of celebration.
Birthdays too are a time for reflection. Have those 249 years behind us prepared us for the future? Are there many celebrations of happiness to be remembered? Have there been a lot of good times and smiles down this path, coupled with some sad hard lessons and tears from those previous years?
Could a review of our history better serve us today if only we might learn a little more as birthdays come and go?
Birthdays and past memories are often mixed with many different emotions.
We are, for certain, a most unique people in the world to be gifted by those many freedoms we embrace each and every day.
I will travel to a high picturesque hill in Clear Spring, guests of Sam and Linda Barnhart, who are fine hosts to many guests and join them in their patriotic celebration of our freedoms and to thank God for His blessings.
It is a beautiful event where the fireworks and festivities below the mountain overlook dot the skies worthy of President Adams’ call for celebration on a most special birthday.
The valley will be lit up with pomp and circumstance.
There is much to be thankful for, but there are still others who suffer, and our history and past years have also been filled with many chapters of despair.
In Abe Lincoln’s first inaugural address of 1861 he offered a simple meaningful sentence in the shadow of the Civil War:
‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.’
I think of that sentiment today as we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday. I see few friendships in politics these days. Our political frontier does not look promising from where I sit.
There is a ‘great’ division in our country.
Maybe it’s time that this birthday is filled with some promise of ‘friendship’ in the governing of this great nation. Both political parties could benefit from Lincoln’s advice.
Why should we give friendship a try?
I’ve been to Philadelphia and seen the Liberty bell. It has a ‘crack’ in it. I wondered to myself as I peered at this piece of history, if perhaps that is a warning omen to our future political leaders too about that precarious reflection of passed birthdays.
President Franklin Roosevelt had prepared a ‘Jefferson Day’ speech just before his death to be delivered to the nation on April 13, 1945.
Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 as a result of a stroke.
Before his death he had penned these words:
“WE have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.”
Even back then Roosevelt shared his desire that our great nation would work and strive to be one that might improve down this path of history.
Roosevelt had lived through this country’s dust bowl, the Great Depression and the horrors and sacrifices of American soldiers in World War II.
The victory of America and her allies would be a promising footnote in history books.
And he yearned for yet a better world as he wrote those above words of his last speech.
One final caution line of that speech, perhaps offers a hope for all Americans, if only we can put some promise to the future:
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today”.
Let us journey on ~ Happy Birthday America!
