America's 250th birthday: The experiment is not over

On July 4, 1776, a small collection of colonies did something the world considered improbable. They declared that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed" and that liberty belonged not to kings, but to ordinary people. Two hundred and fifty years later, that declaration remains one of history's boldest political experiments. America's birthday should never be simply a celebration of our past. It should be a reflection on our future. Like every nation, the United States has stumbled. We have fought a civil war, endured economic collapse, struggled through periods of injustice, and made mistakes both at home and abroad. We have often fallen short of our ideals.