As fireworks fizzle from America’s 250th celebrations, unity as a nation remains elusive

• As America moves beyond the national celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, columnist Sid Salter says the question that looms large is, “What’s next for our country?”

In the June 1956 edition of Harper’s Magazine, literary giant William Faulkner of Oxford wrote in an essay about the social condition of the South: “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”

As America moves beyond the national celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – replete with fireworks, music, exhibits, and multiple high-production-value television extravaganzas – the question looms large: what’s next for our country?

I recall the Bicentennial celebrations 50 years ago, when I was a rising senior in high school. The national reaction was the same, with demonstrations across the country. But just as the country was divided in 1976, we sadly remain divided a half-century later.

In the Seventies, we were divided by lingering clashes over the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, and by the erosion of trust in government at all levels that those traumas signaled. We were also divided over political unrest in the Middle East and its impact on the U.S. relationship with OPEC and on higher gas prices.

The Cold War remained a national worry in 1976, and despite gains in the 1960s, civil rights issues involving race, gender, and equality loomed large over the national landscape. Fast-forward 50 years, and while the Soviet Union disintegrated, most of the other obstacles to national unity have remained in place from the Bicentennial to the Semiquincentennial.

There are subtle differences. The distrust of government that manifested itself in the shadows of Vietnam and Watergate has now morphed into rabid and corrosive political partisanship. Demonizing political opponents is now blood sport, and in the political arena, it’s not enough merely to win an election; the desire almost seems to be to burn one’s opponents’ political house down.

The disappearance of even the quaint notion of “the loyal opposition” in American politics leaves us all wondering whether our country can return to the recognition that we are indeed, or at least should be, all Americans with shared values and a common destiny. Civility in the halls of Congress, mutual respect in the nation’s judicial system, and recognition of the absolute value of a diversity of ideas seem, now, perhaps a bridge too far.

How far apart are we? The nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that, by a margin of 59%, “most Americans think our best days are behind us,” and that 69% are dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country.

A Pew Research Center survey found that Americans believe that in 2050, the nation’s system of government will operate worse (54%), the economy will be weaker (55%), the nation will be a more dangerous place to live (56%), the U.S. will be less important in the world (58%) and that the country will be more politically divided (66%).

While I observed the nation’s celebrations of our 200th and 250th birthdays as a country, I have no illusions of being around for the 300th celebration, the 2076 Tricentennial. But there is no shortage of published opinions on what my grandchildren may see 50 years from now.

Futurists have predicted longer lifespans, aided by advances in healthcare and technology, and lower net population growth. Other predictions include increased globalization and an American economy that may be overtaken as the global economic leader by either China, India, or both.

The Orwellian fear of “Big Brother,” as depicted in his classic “1984,” seems downright quaint compared to the projected personal data tracking and other technological adaptations that will impact governance and privacy rights over the next 50 years. But that’s another prediction.

At 250 years, America celebrated a grand birthday. The fireworks were inspiring and lovely. A day off to think about things other than trust in government and economic challenges was a welcome one. Even if for a few days, the States were united or reasonably so.

In accepting his Nobel Prize in 1950 in Stockholm, Faulkner took a look ahead and offered this more forgiving assessment of our future: “I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal… because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”