Happy 250th Birthday, America

Let's celebrate

(Photo by MEHMET ESER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Today, America turns 250.

Two and a half centuries of freedom, courage and a country that has changed the world more than any nation in human history.

This is not just another Fourth of July.

This is America’s 250th birthday, and that is worth celebrating loudly.

At State of the Day, we believe America is still the greatest country on Earth because generation after generation of Americans have built, fought, sacrificed, invented, prayed, worked and dreamed to make this country what it is.

And at a time when pride in America is falling, that belief matters more than ever.

A new Gallup poll shows American pride has fallen to a 25-year low, with just 33% of U.S. adults saying they are “extremely proud” to be American. The divide is even starker by party: 70% of Republicans say they are extremely proud, compared with 28% of independents and just 14% of Democrats.

That should be a wake-up call.

America’s 250th should not be met with cynicism, embarrassment or a shrug.

It should be met with flags flying, grills fired up, fireworks in the sky and a renewed appreciation for the miracle we inherited.

This country gave the world constitutional liberty, self-government, free enterprise, unmatched innovation and the enduring idea that ordinary people have God-given rights no government can take away.

These ideas changed everything.

It gave families a chance to build lives they could never have built anywhere else. It gave the world a model of freedom worth defending.

No, America is not perfect. No country is. But America is exceptional because she has always carried within her the ability to correct, improve, rebuild and rise again.

That is the story of this country.

From the Founding Fathers who declared independence, to the soldiers who defended it. To the workers, families, entrepreneurs, pastors, teachers, parents and patriots who keep this nation moving every day, America’s story is still being written.

And 250 years in, it is still a story worth believing in.

So today, we celebrate.

We celebrate the flag.

We celebrate freedom.

We celebrate the men and women who made this country possible.

We celebrate the fact that, despite every challenge, every crisis and every person who wants to tear her down, America is still standing.

Happy 250th birthday to the United States of America.

May God bless this country, may we remain worthy of our inheritance and may the next 250 years be even greater than the first.

— State of the Day