July, July – my, oh my – is it really July? – Christmas was only last week – and now the new year is half gone – the month has come when we all were born – So, if you are a red-white-and-blue-blooded American – Happy Birthday! – you don’t look so bad to be 250 years old!
July is the birth month of us all. Now, if we’re talking about individuals, in the United States, August is the month that consistently records the highest number of births, but it is usually followed by July or September. I was born in July…the 28th to be exact. My favorite (one and only) grandson was also born in July. He was born two days after me on July 30. Actually, he was born two days and a several years after me. Drew and I will be reversed ages this year…he will turn 17 and I will turn 71.
On the Fourth of July, we, as a nation, will celebrate our 250th birthday. Two-hundred-fifty years may seem like a long time, but in reality, we are not all that old. If you visit in the lands of our forefathers you will see buildings still standing that are centuries older than our country. These United States is like the younger kid brother among the much older siblings. The youngest sibling is often called “the baby.” At 250, the United States is not the youngest nation, but we are still a baby nation.
For those of us who are around my age, we easily remember when we celebrated our 200th birthday back in 1976. It was the year of the bicentennial. We had all kinds of special parades and celebrations. They minted bicentennial coins for the anniversary. Instead of having one date, some coins had two…1776-1976. The most popular bicentennial coin was the quarter, but they minted half-dollars and silver dollars, too. I still have several of those quarters and half-dollars. Occasionally, you will still see one in circulation.
The 250th birthday or anniversary is called a semiquincentennial. There probably won’t be as much celebration as there was with the bicentennial, partly because nobody can spell semiquincentennial and hardly anyone can pronounce it…especially if they are wearing dentures. My spell check didn’t even recognize the word as a word. They certainly couldn’t have engraved that on our coins because none of them are large enough. Can you imagine trying to print that on a penny? Did you just ask, “What is a penny?” The semiquincentennial may be remembered as the year we did away with the penny.
So, whose birthday is it? It is my birthday. It is your birthday. It is our birthday. It is the birthday celebration of “We the People.” 1776 was more than the birth of a new nation, it was the birth of a new government: a government of the people, by the people, for the people. It was an experiment…known as “The American Experiment.” It was a nation of self-governance, or self-rule, and not one ruled by a king or dictator. We do not have a “top down” form of government but a “bottom up” one. We are an independent, do-it-yourself people, yet governed by the people as a whole. We answer to the people and, ultimately, to God Almighty, in whom we trust.
For 250 years the experiment that many said would never work has worked; not without its problems, but it has indeed worked. We do have our share of issues, but I am still proud to be an American…where at least I know I’m free. So, Happy Birthday, my fellow Americans!
Bill King can be reached at bkpreach@yahoo.com.
