Happy 250th Birthday from the Founders, Take Us Home, and Cashmere Community Church is Serving Up Hope
- 11 hours ago
- 7 min read
Last night was our community meal. We often sing Happy Birthday to people. Last night we sang happy birthday to ourselves as Americans. We also sang Take Me Home, Country Roads - fun even if we couldn't sing it very well and needed the words to the verses. We could belt it out when it came to the refrain. We all seem to get both teary and joyful about being taken home to some ideal place.
Our little community meal is the best thing we have going to address where America needs to be going right now if they want to get closer to home. Let me make my case with an imaginary but I believe historically credible letter from its founders.
My dear America,
Happy Birthday to you! Two hundred and fifty years ago we signed our names to an audacious hope. We did not believe we had created a perfect nation. We believed we had begun one.
We entrusted you not with certainty, but with liberty. Not with uniformity, but with the freedom to argue, persuade, worship, invent, dissent, and begin again.
We knew that every generation would inherit unfinished work. We hoped you would become wiser than we were. We ask you now not whether you still honor us, but whether you still honor the ideals that called us together.
Let freedom belong to every citizen.
Let justice become more impartial with each passing generation.
Let power remain accountable to the people.
Let knowledge triumph over ignorance.
Let religion inspire humility rather than domination.
Let commerce create prosperity without sacrificing conscience.
Let disagreement never become hatred.
Remember that a republic cannot be preserved by laws alone. Constitutions are written on parchment, but republics are written on the character of ordinary people.
Cherish curiosity more than certainty.
Choose courage over comfort.
Guard truth, for liberty cannot survive without it.
Extend opportunity to those who have long been denied it, for the promise of America has always been larger than its first draft.
Welcome those who strengthen your common life. Care for the poor, honor honest labor, defend the weak, and remember that greatness is measured not only by wealth or military power, but by the dignity with which you treat one another.
We hope you will argue passionately, forgive generously, and unite whenever the common good requires it.
Every generation writes another chapter in the Declaration. Every generation revises the Constitution—not always with amendments, but with its conduct.
We did not leave you perfection.
We left you possibility.
So on this 250th birthday, celebrate not merely what America has been, but what she may yet become.
May you never lose the courage to reform what is unjust, the wisdom to preserve what is good, and the hope to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Keep the experiment alive.
And may liberty, joined with justice, compassion, humility, and courage, remain your gift to the world.
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Roger Sherman, John Hancock, Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Phillis Wheatley, Martha Washington, Benjamin Rush, Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, Robert Morris, Richard Henry Lee, and all those imperfect, courageous, quarrelsome, visionary founders who dared to believe that liberty and self-government might be possible.
I think one line captures what many of the founders—despite their profound differences—might all have signed:
"We did not leave you perfection. We left you possibility."
That line really holds it all together. It acknowledges both the nation's remarkable achievements and its unfinished work, which is perhaps the most historically faithful message they could offer 250 years later.
And how might they rate America today if we combined their best ideals into one scorecard. I think they would be both proud and disappointed.
Here's my best guess based on what I see when I look around at other countries particularly.
Ideal | Their likely grade for America | Compared with the world |
Political liberty | A- | Among the top 15–20% |
Freedom of speech | A | Among the world's strongest protections |
Religious freedom | A | One of America's greatest successes (though it is under threat) |
Scientific innovation | A+ | World leader |
Economic opportunity | B+ | Still excellent, though less upward mobility than decades ago |
Rule of law | B | Strong institutions but increasing political pressure |
Peaceful transfer of power | B- | Mostly successful, but recent events would deeply concern them |
Civic virtue and public character | C | They considered this the foundation of the republic |
Civil discourse | D+ | They expected disagreement but not mutual contempt |
Equality before the law | B | Vast improvement over 1776, though still unfinished |
Care for the common good | B- | Better than some nations, weaker than many democracies |
National unity | C- | They would worry that faction has become identity |
George Washington
Washington would probably say:
"Your liberty survives. Your character worries me."
His Farewell Address warned repeatedly against extreme political parties and citizens placing party above country. He would be deeply alarmed by today's polarization. And remember he deliberately turned down the opportunity of becoming king, choosing to establish a republic where power was held by the people.
Benjamin Franklin
Franklin famously answered that the Constitutional Convention had given America:
"A republic, if you can keep it."
He would probably ask one question:
"Are you still capable of governing yourselves?"
He would admire America's inventiveness and entrepreneurship but worry about misinformation and declining civic habits. Ben is one of my favorites. Not perfect I know, but what a guy!
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson would celebrate freedom of religion, education, and scientific achievement.
He would likely criticize concentrations of wealth and political power, believing they threatened republican government.
John Adams
Adams wrote that:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."
By "moral," he meant people capable of self-restraint, honesty, responsibility, and public service—not merely religious observance.
He might conclude that America's greatest danger is not external enemies but a weakening of civic virtue.
James Madison
Madison expected factions. He designed the Constitution because he knew they were inevitable.
But he hoped competing interests would produce compromise.
Instead, he might conclude:
"The machinery still works, but too few wish to compromise."
Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton would likely be thrilled by America's economic strength, technological leadership, and global influence. He would probably criticize our inability to solve long-term problems like debt, infrastructure, and fiscal sustainability.
Abigail Adams
She famously urged her husband to "remember the ladies."
She would likely be pleased that women vote, lead businesses, serve in government, and sit on the Supreme Court.
She would also ask whether our culture encourages mutual respect between women and men rather than simply shifting power from one group to another.
Frederick Douglass (though not a founder, he became one of America's greatest interpreters of its founding ideals)
Douglass argued that the Declaration's principles were true even when America failed to live up to them.
He would likely say:
"You have come astonishingly far—but never stop widening liberty."
Overall Grade
Though you may not agree, if I had to give America one overall grade using what I think is the founders' combined scorecard:
Liberty: A
Opportunity: B+
Justice: B
Character: C+
Unity: C-
Hope for the future: A-
Compared to most of the world, I think they would still see the United States as one of history's great experiments in liberty. They would also say its greatest threats now come less from foreign powers than from within: the erosion of trust, civic friendship, and the virtues needed to sustain a free people.
That's where our community meals come in. They aren't so much about the food as gathering together around the table. Wearing name tags, shaking hands - sometimes hugging, meeting new folks (including people of different abilities, different politics, different theology, different socioeconomics), celebrating, and sharing our sorrows. And singing. Cleaning up. Together.
The irony is that the founders did not expect Americans to agree on everything. They expected vigorous disagreement. What they hoped citizens would retain was a shared commitment to constitutional government, truth-seeking, compromise, and the common good. If they offered advice on America's 250th birthday, it might simply be:
"Guard your liberty—but remember that liberty survives only when joined to character, justice, and mutual responsibility." And a little hospitality goes a long way.
You may not agree with my score for hope for the future. but if you could see what I see most every week - usually with a hundred people or so, you might agree.
How might we journey together to the Good Life by taking our 250th birthday to seriously dedicate ourselves to building a more perfect union where we enjoy liberty, and continue to build character, justice, and accept our civic responsibility?
There are many easy ways to start like by attending a community function... a parade, a community meal, and connecting respectfully with others.
And please allow me to add a short addendum to the world scene and our common flourishing.
As I have been learning more about the World Cup, I have become fascinated by the man who dreamed it into existence. Jules Rimet, the French educator who founded the tournament in 1930, believed soccer could become much more than a game. He imagined it as a place where nations could compete fiercely without becoming enemies, where ordinary people could discover their common humanity, and where shared joy might help build a more peaceful world. His vision was so compelling that he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1956.
Rimet's dream was inspired in part by Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum ("Of New Things"), which taught that every person possesses inherent dignity and that societies flourish when they seek the common good, justice, and solidarity rather than division and exploitation. Rimet saw football as one small but powerful way to put those ideals into practice—not by arguing about peace, but by giving millions of people an opportunity to experience it.
As I watch fans exchanging scarves, celebrating one another's victories, and forming friendships across cultures, I wonder if Jules Rimet understood something we are only beginning to appreciate: sometimes our deepest divisions are not healed first by politics or debate, but by shared experiences that awaken wonder, respect, and joy. And discover that beneath all our differences, we belong to one human family. Take us home.
I'll be watching the United States men's national soccer team on Monday and hoping our beautiful Seattle host city shows up at its best.
Comments