The Promise We Share on America's 250th Birthday

Faith in Each Other, Faith in America

In a column in West Texas newspapers today, my opponent, August Pfluger, aims to drive us further from each other by focusing on partisan rhetoric in what should be a moment of celebration, contemplation, and commemoration. Here are my thoughts on America’s landmark birthday...

As a mom, I often think about the country we're handing to our children. I want them to inherit the freedoms we enjoy today and the confidence that this remarkable experiment in self-government is worth protecting for generations to come.

Right now, even among families and neighbors, it can feel as though we're living in different realities. Every news story can be a new fight, and every election is described as the most important of our lifetime. When every other person seems to feel strongly – in a different way – about the direction of our country, it’s hard to have faith that we will all ever come together again.

It’s an overwhelming moment to live in, but here are two things I know in my heart.

First, each and every human being is born worthy of love, freedom and dignity.

Second, America exists to protect those God-given rights.

Our founding fathers also knew these two things, treating them as guiding truths. They debated, revised, and refined Thomas Jefferson's words to settle on one of the most enduring sentences ever written:

"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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

So while our founders weren’t oracles–and their words have seen some critical updates, like to include women and people of all races, classes, and religions, for example–those words remind us that our rights do not come from a king, a president, a court, or even a majority. They belong to each of us by virtue of our humanity. They must persist, and the enduring purpose of our republic is to protect them.

That is the kind of belief worth defending. The kind of truth that puts a lump in my throat. The kind of idea worth passing from one generation to the next. The kind of promise that deserves to endure for another 250 years.

So this Saturday, as families gather around backyard barbecues, neighbors line Main Streets for parades, and fireworks light up the night sky, and we celebrate our collective love for our country, I hope we’ll also take a moment to reflect on the promise that has carried our nation for two and a half centuries—and our responsibility to carry it forward.

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