250th Anniversary: Happy Birthday America!

– Chad Beatty

I can’t believe it has been 250 years already. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 200 years of independence…although I was 8 at the time! As they say, time flies when you are having fun.

This grand experiment in freedom, which the founding fathers began in 1776, has resulted in the most powerful and prosperous country in the history of the world. Yes, despite what you may hear on CNN or CNBC, we live in the greatest country in the world, at the most prosperous time in history.

Where else can you go to a grocery store and literally have an entire aisle of chip choices, and shelves stocked with endless varieties of designer water options! There is a reason people from India, Africa, China and from virtually every Latin American nation are risking life and limb to enter the U.S. 

It’s true, our poor live better than most countries’ middle class. Recent data shows the U.S. median annual income is about $4,000–$5,000 higher than the global median, and $10,000–$12,000 higher than many regions.

We have better economic opportunities, better healthcare, superior higher education, and cutting-edge technology that is the envy of the world.

We also have a history of fighting fascism, standing up to communism, stopping tyrants, eliminating terrorists, freeing nations, rescuing hostages, and sending financial and humanitarian aid around the word. Yes, we ARE the good guys!

I think the most concrete example of our nation’s moral character took place at the end of WWII. The United States was the first to develop nuclear weapons, effectively ending the war. We could have easily leveraged our overwhelming military superiority to lay claim to any nation or economy on the planet; we could have subjugated the world. But we did the opposite, rebuilding most of the world’s infrastructure and economies at a staggering financial cost to the United States. I will say it again; we ARE the good guys.

In 1630, John Winthrop, an early Puritan settler, delivered a sermon describing the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a “city upon a hill,” watched by the world and judged by God.

Although our history has not been perfect, a sad flaw of all humanity, I believe the world still looks to us for guidance, protection, and clarity. We are still the shining “city upon the hill,” watched by the world and judged by God.

I attribute this to our historical Judeo-Christian values. We are a nation shaped by Christianity and guided by God. From the Mayflower Compact to The Declaration of Independence, all our founding documents clearly point to a theistic view of the world.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” 

Addressing this issue with their great wisdom, the Founding Fathers clearly enumerated a provision for the separation of church and state. The principal intent was to ensure that religious institutions operate independently, and that the government does not endorse or prohibit a specific religion. It was meant to protect the sovereignty of government from religious institutions as much as it was meant to protect the sovereignty of religious institutions from government.

I could go on and on, but space is limited, and paper is expensive, so I will end with a favorite quote by Benjamin Franklin. The date was Monday, September 17, 1787. The location was the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia…

As Franklin was exiting the building, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”