Editorial: How to enjoy America's 250th birthday

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Jun 22, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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As the nation’s 250th celebration approaches, many Americans don’t feel much like celebrating.

We empathize. Unlike at previous landmark anniversaries of the country’s founding, we have a narcissistic president who wants to make the day more about him and his endless grievances than the enduring principles and ideals on which most Americans still agree.

The spectacle of a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts a week ago on the South Lawn of the White House, replete with a military flyover, surely was a thrill to many partisans of President Donald Trump. For those of us who harbor the quaint notion of the White House grounds as a unifying place, the reaction not just to the event but to the divisive and inflammatory rhetoric spoken there was, frankly, one of sorrow.

On Wednesday, the president will conduct a rally on the mall in Washington, D.C., featuring himself (naturally) — a pivot he decided to make after a series of musical performers such as the Commodores, Young MC and Martina McBride opted not to appear once it became clear to them the celebration would be a nakedly partisan affair.

“We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,” Trump grumbled on Truth Social. Yes, there will be more flyovers.

And, just to reinforce the theme, Trump posted last week that he will hold yet another rally on the Fourth of July itself, again on the mall. That one, he wrote on Truth Social, will be “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘Tribute to America.’”

Which will it mostly be? A TRUMP RALLY? Or a Tribute to America? Surely the capitalization choice is a clue.

That Trump would make this event mainly about himself should come as a surprise to no one, of course.

For those old enough to do so, think back to the nation’s bicentennial in 1976. Gerald Ford was the president, having attained the office via the dramatic resignation two years earlier of Richard M. Nixon. Ford was running for election to the office in his own right at the time, but his remarks on July 4 of that year didn’t reference the coming November contest. Instead, he offered a well-told history lesson on the American Revolution and spoke to how America had evolved.

Never renowned as a speech giver, Ford rose to the occasion that day in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.

“It is fitting,” Ford said, “that we ask ourselves hard questions even on a glorious day like today. Are the institutions under which we live working the way they should? Are the foundations laid in 1776 and 1789 still strong enough and sound enough to resist the tremors of our times? Are our God-given rights secure, our hard-won liberties protected?”

If anything, these questions are more bracing today than they were back then, and consider that Ford was speaking during a tumultuous era in American history.

Just two years earlier a president had resigned in disgrace after what had been one of the nation’s toughest constitutional challenges, putting immense pressure on Congress and the Supreme Court to respond to a rogue executive branch. The pall of Vietnam hung over the nation; the bicentennial came a little over a year after the fall of Saigon, which marked the end of an era every bit as divisive as the one we experience now.

But those of us who were around for America’s 200th likely don’t recall much about Ford’s address. We may well remember the grand sight of the tall ships in New York Harbor. But, mostly, we’ll recall the celebrations in our hometowns, be those cities, suburbs or small towns, and how our family, friends and neighbors came together as fellow Americans simply to have a good time. To have fun. To celebrate all that is good about our country.

The nonstop attention-seeking of our current president threatens to intrude on the day. Don’t let it happen.

Fly your American flag and be proud to do so. Enjoy the day with the people you love. Be hospitable to the people who think differently from you.

Eat hot dogs and burgers. Watch fireworks. Be grateful for the opportunities America affords to you and yours.

On the coming Fourth, while we surely will contemplate the important questions Ford asked, we mostly will enjoy the day along with those around us and will tune out unnecessary noise — 250 years after more than 50 brave signatories put their lives and fortunes at great risk in the cause of converting an idea into a nation, we will celebrate America, knowing more great chapters are to come.

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