Our Nation’s 250th Birthday

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2026 Blog #12

April 20, 2026

Our Nation’s 250th Birthday

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic lately. My high school class is planning a party for our fiftieth reunion. I remember the summer of 1976 like it was yesterday. At that time, I felt like I was on top of the world. That time was among the greatest times of my life.

Does anyone not remember their high school graduation? Many people call high school the best years of their lives. They speak happily of these years, and I know some who were sad when their high school years ended. I have never felt that much affection for my high school years, but I certainly was thrilled when I graduated. Graduation was the one of several great events that I experienced in 1976.

During my senior year I had received my acceptance letter to Hope College. I had researched my choice of colleges very carefully. I wanted a Reformed Church college because I was looking toward seminary and I wanted a Reformed Church education to prepare me for Reformed Church seminary studies. I also wanted a college that was at least 500 miles away from home. I didn’t want to live in the home that I grew up in. It was a crazy place. I did have dreams of marrying someday, but there were few Protestant girls in my hometown. Hope College was 98% Protestant, and more than half were female. I was thrilled to get my acceptance letter.

That same spring, I was accepted into a counselor training program at the Presbyterian camp in Johnsonburg, NJ. When I was accepted, into this program I thought that I was on my way to paradise. I had grown up as a camper in Johnsonburg and for me it was close to being in heaven. One of my goals in life was to someday to become a staff member at this camp. This training program was a steppingstone for me to someday joining the camp staff. I thanked God when I received this acceptance. Within a few weeks of Graduation, I was living at summer camp for the entire summer as well as looking toward moving into college at the end of August.

The backdrop for all of my personal excitement was the optimism that we all felt toward our country. The war in Vietnam had finally ended. The nightmare of Dick Nixon and the Watergate scandal had ended. Gerald Ford was now president, and we were preparing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of our country. It seemed as though we had closed the door of the negative past and we were optimistic about the future.

I remember watching the Adams Chronicles on PBS. This series gave all of us watchers a background for our bi-centennial celebration. Likewise, newscasts had daily reports on the work of decisions and actions of the continental congress. Not for profit groups sold bicentennial license plates to put on the front of cars. It seemed like our whole nation was conscious of the upcoming celebration. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the same enthusiasm for the 250th anniversary.

Of course, I’ve watched the Ken Burn’s series on the revolution. Yet, I see fewer programs about our history than I did in 1976, and I don’t hear the same excitement about the celebration as I did 50 years ago. I wonder if we are less optimistic about our nation’s future than we were in 1976.

Unlike 50 years ago, we haven’t had a war end. Now we have seen a war begin. At our bicentennial, we celebrated having our nation get “back to normal” after the raucous years of the Nixon White House. Now we seem to have lost our “normal” as we seem to have an increasingly dysfunctional government complete with government shutdowns and workers not getting paid. I have not attempted to research polling records that would indicate the optimism of our nation then and now, but I suspect that our optimism has declined in these years.

Maybe I’m naïve, but I’m still optimistic about our nation. I believe that the strength of our nation lies in the citizens, not in our politicians. Politicians come and go but patriotic citizens remain. Someday we will not remember the names of our current politicians, but our future generations will still celebrate the goodness of America. Yes, I am ready to celebrate our 250th birthday. I will celebrate well. It is our nation, not our politicians, that I will be celebrating.

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