You want to spend your holiday grumbling about America’s shortcomings? Well, it’s a free country. Me, to start, I’m toasting our four freedoms — free speech, freedom of worship and freedom from want and fear. And the country’s huge land mass and natural resources, from which much additional good derives. And diversity wrought from heavy immigrant traffic. And equality, opportunity and tolerance. What nation over the last quarter-millennium has offered more?
I also am pondering significant sites like the Valley Forge, where our frostbitten forebears summoned the resolve to see the revolution through. Ditto the Alamo, where Americans faced hopeless odds against Mexican forces, Gettysburg, the Civil War’s climax, and New York City, where the horrific 9/11 attacks unfolded. I also am thinking about contrasting, peaceable marvels like DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park and Disneyland.
I’m recalling the Founding Fathers, like Illinois’ native son Abe Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, Charles Lindbergh, Audie Murphy, Jonas Salk, John Glenn, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and many more role models.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address cited the difficulty of honoring such luminaries who’ve surpassed us. Employing only 272 words, the beleaguered president conceded that the valorous actions at this Pennsylvania crossroads spoke louder than anything we could ever say of them. And likewise with 250th semiquincentennial anniversary, our ineffectual tributes will be quickly forgotten. But we deliver them anyway. It’s a necessary part of immortalizing our heritage.
Tom Gregg, Niles
Not feeling this year’s milestone July Fourth
Those of us who were around, remember being so excited for the nation’s 200th anniversary in 1976? I was turning 16 that June, and I couldn’t wait for the parades, celebrations and fireworks. What a day to look forward to! Donald Trump has put a damper on this year’s milestone with his “Freedom 250” events that are all about him. I don’t want to buy anything that says “250th anniversary” because it reminds me of Trump. I can only look forward to the 275th anniversary of this great nation (God willing) and hope Trump’s grandson or granddaughter is not the president.
Linda Padgurskis, Clearing
Treaty of Paris marks America’s true birthday
The United States, with its post-Revolutionary War independence and nationhood recognized by England, was “born” in 1783.
July 4, will not be the U.S.’ 250th birthday. That marks the semiquincentennial of the signing and issuing a Declaration of Independence from the British Crown and Empire by delegates from the 13 colonies. That document began the yearslong trans-Atlantic war between the colonies and the “mother” country. Independence and nationhood lay seven years in the future.
The battle for separation, recognition and national independence had a long gestation period and a difficult pregnancy. It was difficult; success was not likely until after the colonies’ rebellion began in 1776. We forget the struggles, losses and gains in our rush and misrepresentation under the current national administration.
British Gen. Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the rebels after the Battle of Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781. But, critically, the Treaty of Paris — granting independence to the new nation of former colonies — was not signed until Sept. 3, 1783. Almost three more months passed before the last British troops left from the port of New York City on Nov 25, 1783.
The Treaty of Paris, whose 250th anniversary our country should be celebrating, granted full independence and recognized its geographic borders.
Worthy of note, the U.S. Continental Congress did not officially ratify the Treaty of Paris until Jan. 14, 1784. Five more years passed before the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation on March 4, 1789. A month before, the male electorate chose George Washington as the first U.S. president
In the historical path to independent nationhood, 1783 demands greater commemoration than 1776. I will celebrate the U.S.’ 250th in 2033, when Donald Trump will not be rewriting history.
The violent theft of the lands and rights of previous sovereign Indigenous nations deserves its own attention in both 2026 and 2033. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris, which greatly expanded the new nation, ignored Native American rights.
I urge others to join me in recognizing American independence with respectful historical accuracy. Is patience an American virtue in 2026 like it was in 1776?
Harvey J. Graff, Lincoln Park
Founding Fathers were ‘No Kings’ guys
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we should not just look at the most quoted excerpts but look at it as a whole, especially those portions that touch on the tyranny of King George III.
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them,” one part reads.
A few paragraphs later, it says of George III, “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
Those who signed the Declaration of Independence wanted leaders of the colonies to have the authority to enact laws. As the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The Constitution also gives the states the primary responsibility to set the methods for holding congressional elections.
The Founding Fathers, who clearly didn’t want egomaniac kings, also wanted to encourage migration and the naturalization of foreigners.
To celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Americans should rededicate themselves to the goals set by the founders that were viewed as guarding against tyranny.
Alan Rhine, Glenview