Summer is officially here! All together now: Hallelujah!
As usual, we are about to really kick things off with a Fourth of July celebration. This year is something special, though: America’s 250th birthday!
The Fourth of July is like the Super Bowl around here — this is what Rockaway plays for.
You think people were crazy for getting to the city so early for the Knicks parade? Just wait until you see the beach on Saturday morning. One of my favorite sights every year is going down and seeing thousands of empty beach chairs and umbrellas stretching from the dunes to the shoreline, like some kind of tropical ghost town.
Even though this is always a week of fireworks, figuratively and literally, there is definitely a little extra something in the air.
Two hundred fifty years ago, our Founding Fathers put down on paper a few radical ideas: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It was a bold thing to declare at the time. It still is a bold thing to declare. But they did, and with those words, the United States of America was born.
The United States of America is 250 years old. In the grand scheme of history, that is not the most impressive number. The Roman Empire lasted for almost 1,500 years. Japan traces its monarchy, an institution still in existence today, to 660 B.C.
At the same time, 250 years, especially in the modern era, is nothing to shake a stick at. Our Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world, at 237 years old.
But we are far from finished.
This is the semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the nation. That word has been thrown around a lot — mostly in writing, because it is one heck of a tongue twister — but what does “semiquincentennial” actually mean?
If you break down the Latin roots, the word translates to “halfway to 500.”
What an amazingly perfect way to phrase this occasion.
This is a country that honors its past with reverence and respect — that’s why we are celebrating the Fourth of July in the first place! But we are also a people that cannot help but look forward to the future.
Generations of people have turned to America for the possibility of a better future. This community in particular can look to our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who came here from somewhere else, carrying with them the hope of a brighter future for themselves and, especially, for their children.
For better or worse, that is what has always made America special: no matter how nostalgically we look back at the past, as a nation we hold an unshakable belief that tomorrow can be better than today.
Two hundred fifty years is something to celebrate. And, I don’t know about you, but I plan on celebrating pretty hard. What we are really celebrating, though, is halfway to 500. Hopefully, 250 years from now, another generation of Americans will gather to celebrate halfway to 1,000.
Happy Fourth of July, Rockaway, and Happy Birthday, America! Here’s to many more!
