Yesterday I found myself debating with a few people whether July 2nd or July 4th should really be the official holiday.
Now yes, we all know it is the 4th of July, but we also know that independence was technically declared on July 2nd. History is complicated like that. The good news is we are Americans, which means accuracy has never stopped us from celebrating an entire weekend anyway.
And for the last time until 2037, the 4th of July falls on a Saturday. I think there is a song about that somewhere.
We have lamented quite a bit over the past few weeks about these celebrations, about how things feel different this year and how when you compare images of the Bicentennial in 1976, what we are living through now feels like the Temu version of that event.
And that is unfortunate because 250 years is a pretty respectable amount of time for a young nation to stay alive.
Although admittedly, in our current state of national division, there aren’t really too many unifying moments as of late..
This year the biggest debate seems to be whether Americans should head to Washington, D.C. for the big celebration. Supporters of Donald Trump are saying it is the place to be while critics are arguing it is less of a patriotic gathering and more of an elaborate product placement campaign.
But that is America. Choose the fireworks display or celebration of your liking. Freedom means having the right to make that choice.
But the real reason for this post, after all of that unnecessary dialogue to get here, comes from a fascinating new poll released by the Cato Institute–right leaning but as long as the merits and science of the survey are strong, then the results are accurate..
The survey shows that nearly half of Americans do not know what the 250th anniversary of the United States is actually commemorating.
Let us start with the good news.
Eighty-six percent say they are grateful to be Americans.
Seventy percent say the founding principles of the country are still relevant today.
Fifty-six percent worry the United States could lose its freedoms within the next 50 years.
And nearly sixty percent say no political party should ever be trusted with too much power.
Frankly, that sounds like America in a nutshell.
But here is the catch! Forty-six percent of Americans apparently do not know what America’s 250th anniversary is even about.
Only fifty-three percent answered correctly.
And naturally, when you look deeper into the numbers, the group with the highest percentage of confusion is Generation Z, where sixty-one percent reportedly had no idea what exactly we are commemorating this year.
Something appears to have gone wrong in school somewhere or something?
Now before we panic too much, we should acknowledge the source here and remember younger generations have always had gaps in knowledge. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt because let’s be honest, most generations probably spent their youth not fully understanding everything either.
The divide gets even more interesting when discussing the Founding Fathers.
Forty-nine percent of Gen Z sees them as courageous leaders.
Compare that to eighty-nine percent of seniors.
We understand why. When you study history, you realize the past was messy, cruel, flawed, and filled with beliefs that do not exactly age well. We can endlessly debate whether it is fair to judge the past through modern lenses.
But perhaps Gen Z should remember one thing.
The Founding Fathers were the Gen Z of their time.
Just picture John Hancock standing up in the Continental Congress screaming “six seven.”
Picture Benjamin Franklin walking into the room saying, “The vibes are giving independence.”
If the Founding Fathers were here today, I suspect they would have loved TikTok.
But they are not here.
We are.
And unfortunately, forty-six percent of us are not entirely sure why we are about to do what we are doing this weekend.
One hundred percent of us, however, will probably eat a hot dog and stare upward saying “ooh” and “ahh” while fireworks explode over a humid July sky.
Happy Birthday, America.
I suppose we should all wish each other luck as we head toward 300.
And as we have said every year since 2019, you can’t spell America without Erica..
