As the United States marked its 250th anniversary, I found myself writing not one essay but four. Together they explore a common question: What does it mean to be an American? The essays move from the Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of birthright citizenship, to the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, to a fictional letter from the future, and finally to my own family’s story of immigration, adoption, and identity. Individually they stand alone. Together they are my Independence Day meditation on the American experiment.
Meditations on Independence
- A Powerful Reminder of American Citizenship
A reflection on the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision and Wolf Blitzer’s moving words, “Just like us.” It establishes the constitutional and human themes that follow. - The Birthday That Should Have United America An examination of America’s 250th birthday through the lens of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the challenge posed by contemporary politics.
- What Skyler Fusaro Might Say About the 250th Anniversary of Our Country
A letter from the future inviting Americans to consider how history may remember the choices made during the nation’s 250th year. - Rooted in Silence: My Family’s Legacy of Immigration, Adoption, and Identity
A deeply personal reflection that reminds readers that debates over citizenship and belonging are never abstract. They are lived in families, carried across generations, and woven into the American story.
Questions Going Forward
Perhaps the question every American should ask on this 250th anniversary of our nation is:
What kind of country do we want to leave to our children and grandchildren?
One in which the Constitution remains the supreme law of the land, or one in which constitutional principles yield to the will of whoever occupies the White House?
Houston, we have a problem! There is someone in the White House who does not believe the Constitution should guide the government of the United States. In fact, he is eroding the checks and balances, and institutions that have guided the U.S. government.
The founders knew that freedom depended not on the virtue of individual leaders. It depended on institutions strong enough to restrain every leader. Have we remembered that lesson? Or have we allowed ourselves to believe that the ends justify the means when our preferred candidate is in power?
Loyalty to the Constitution?
There is another question that has stayed with me since I left the classroom. What does it really mean to be a patriot? Is patriotism measured by the size of the flag we wave, the slogans we chant, or our loyalty to a political movement? Or is it measured by something quieter and more demanding—a willingness to defend the Constitution even when doing so is politically inconvenient? My years as a teacher convinced me that democracies endure because ordinary citizens choose principle over personality, law over power, and truth over convenience.
As fireworks lighted the sky this Independence Day, I hope we paused for a moment before looking upward. I hope we look inward. The Declaration of Independence challenged one generation of Americans to imagine a nation founded on liberty and equality, although not for all people living in the country at that time. The Constitution challenged the next generation to build institutions worthy of those ideals. The Civil War led to Amendments that answered the question: Who belongs? In the 1960s, America became a liberal democracy after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. It’s now been ruptured by the Supreme Court.
Now, 250 years later, the challenge belongs to us. When Americans celebrate the nation’s 300th birthday fifty years from now, what will they say about our generation? Will they remember that we allowed our constitutional inheritance to erode, or will they say that, when democracy was tested, Americans rediscovered the courage to preserve it?
That, I believe, is the real question before us—not only on the Fourth of July, but every day that follows.
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