This article originally appeared in The Detroit News January 13, 2026.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. This is an opportunity to celebrate America and what she represents, and to reflect upon the essential values and liberties we all cherish.

What does America mean to you? Perhaps the meaning is tied to the story of your family and how they arrived in America. Perhaps you think of the opportunities your children or grandchildren will have. Or perhaps you’re grateful for the freedoms embedded in America’s founding documents.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order early last year calling for “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wrote that this year’s celebration offers an opportunity for “examination of the historic themes and values upon which our country is based.” Local America 250 committees around the nation are gearing up for this summer.

The 250th anniversary is keyed to the Declaration of Independence, ratified on July 4, 1776. Years of tension between the American colonies and King George III led to the moment when 56 men serving in the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration. The signers said that their “decent respect” for mankind called for an explanation.

Then came those familiar words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.”

Governments, said the Declaration of Independence, exist to secure these rights and derive their powers from the consent of the people. But when a government becomes destructive of these rights, the people have the right to form a new government.

The 56 men who signed the Declaration knew they were risking everything. They did not do so for “light and transient causes.” They explained what compelled such a grave action. Great Britain, they said, tried to establish “absolute tyranny over these States.”

The Declaration then listed, in specific detail, just how the king had done this: He refused to recognize duly-enacted laws, obstructed the establishment of a judiciary, kept standing armies in the colonies in times of peace, cut off American trade with other parts of the world, imposed taxes without consent and deprived people of trial by jury.

Given those reasons, said the Declaration, the colonies were “absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown” and were thenceforth free and independent states.

What happened over the next 250 years was the greatest expansion of personal liberty and prosperity in all of human history.

Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, drew upon his fellow Virginian George Mason, who drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights a few weeks before the United States declared independence. In its declaration, Virginia said that no free government can be preserved unless by “frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”

That admonition — to return to fundamental principles often — is powerful. Especially today when the political left in America flirts with socialism and the right is drawn to authoritarianism and populism. If we forget the fundamentals, we endanger our freedom and the rule of law.

So it’s worthwhile to ask: What do we as Americans stand for? What priorities and values do we hold in common? How do we recommit to the things that made us a shining city on a hill?

Two-hundred and fifty years ago those men pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. We can be grateful they did. And it’s up to us to continue.

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