Critics Aside, America’s 250th Birthday Party is Taking Shape

Written by Robert Knight

President Donald J. Trump has promised a “huge” celebration to commemorate America’s 250th birthday next year.

We’re talking massive fireworks, a Flag Day military parade in Washington and the creation of a National Garden of American Heroes consisting of life-size statues portraying great Americans from all walks of life, including Harriet Tubman, Frank Capra, the Wright Brothers, Susan B. Anthony and Miles Davis.

The truly eclectic selections include “scientists and inventors, entrepreneurs, civil rights leaders, missionaries and religious leaders,” along with “those who fought for the abolition of slavery” and “opponents of national socialism or international socialism.”

The list of hundreds can be found in an executive order Mr. Trump issued at the end of his first term, on Jan. 18, 2021. Critics have already done their best to rain on the 2026 parade. They are calling for a mixed observance, with America beating itself up for ever having slavery and for ongoing racism.

“What I and most professional historians would object to is ‘unapologetic’ history, patriotic or otherwise,” said James Grossman, outgoing executive director of the American Historical Association. “To apologize for the harms we have done to others is gracious, generous and a good learning experience for all of us.”

As The Washington Times reported, “Mr. Grossman urged the White House to treat America 250 like a secular version of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement that invites people ‘to reflect on our sins, to repent [and] to seek forgiveness.’”

Reflection can be healthy, as can seeking forgiveness, but not in every context.

Think about the last time you celebrated someone’s birthday. After the candles were blown out, was there an obligatory struggle session about the person’s faults? Was the joy of the event “balanced” by having everyone point out the person’s long-ago mistakes or current flaws?

That’s what the critics want for America’s 250th anniversary celebration. These folks falsely contend that slavery was unique to America and that racism still permeates all American institutions.

That’s the message of The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” a woke reworking of history that claims the nation began when the first slaves arrived in America, not in 1776 with the unveiling of the Declaration of Independence.

Teachers wielding “The 1619 Project” along with Marxist fake historian Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” are giving children and collegians a warped concept of America as a Great Satan that must be taken down for the good of humanity. They’re a sister act to militant Islamists who hate America for our liberty and for supporting Israel, the “Little Satan.”

However, much of the world apparently disagrees with them. Given the choice, billions of people around the world would move to America. Cynics might respond, “Of course they would. America has money. They want some, too.” Sure, they do. Everyone wants to be able to provide for themselves and their families, but America’s unique attraction runs far deeper.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France that opened to the public in 1886, stands in New York Harbor with a torch and a tablet engraved with “July 4, 1776.” At her feet is a broken chain and shackle, symbolizing the freeing of the slaves after the Civil War.

The country’s unprecedented prosperity and technological achievements stem from a commitment to liberty, to the idea that we should be as free as possible to live out our beliefs and keep what we have earned. The U.S. Constitution is all about making sure the government doesn’t trample on either property rights or the right of conscience. If you take away either, the other can’t be protected. If the state owns everything, as in a communist country, it owns you.

Ownership of other human beings violates the ultimate property right: to ourselves. Slavery can bring out the worst in the “owners,” spawning myriad horrors. It’s also one thing to give your life over freely to God and quite another when the government or an individual plays God.

One way to look at slavery is that it is 100% taxation. It’s why every tax increase moves us closer to slavery.

The American Revolution was fought over more than taxation. The British crown insisted on trampling the Colonists’ rights under British Common Law. One of the most hated practices was quartering soldiers in homes against the homeowners’ will.

After winning the war, the Colonists created a federal system with a three-branched national government and powers that were “reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” The whole thing has worked remarkably well to advance human liberty to where we are now. When we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, we must not forget that many people don’t want our self-governing republic to survive.

In his inaugural address as governor of California in 1967, Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”

We should also thank God and America’s veterans for allowing us to live in the greatest country in history.

As for the naysayers, they can put a sock in it — at least until the party’s over.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.

Robert Knight is a former Los Angeles Times news editor and writer and was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This column was originally published by The Washington Times.

He has been published by the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Christian Post, AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, Townhall.com, OneNewsNow.com and many others.  He has co-authored three books and written 10, including “Liberty on the Brink: How the Left Plans to Steal Your Vote” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) and “The Coming Communist Wave: What Happens If the Left Captures All Three Branches of Government” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) . 

You can follow him on Twitter at @RobertKnight17, and his website is roberthknight.com.