Life, Liberty, and Love of Country: America 250 in the Birthplaces of Freedom

One writer's experience with our nation's semiquincentennial, a human Liberty Bell, and more.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," the Continental Congress declared in July 1776, "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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 

The United States of America was born, and the world would never be the same.

If you were in Philadelphia on July 2 this year and walked past Independence Mall at 7 a.m., you would have seen a group of 250 people in red, white, and blue shirts lined up in strange formation waving American flags. Doubtless, you would have wondered what they were doing. 

But had you been up on a crane or a helicopter as news reporters were, you would have seen that I and the 249 other patriots formed a Living Liberty Bell—a symbol of America 250. 

And like those who saw the Living Liberty Bell from above, modern Americans tend to look back on the Revolution and see independence as inevitable. But for the men who voted or fought for independence—and like those of us in the Bell unable to see the large image we formed—the immediate outlook was far less certain or triumphant.

The human liberty bell. Image credit: Catherine Salgado

The Things I Saw This July 4

This writer had the honor to travel to key historical sites in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania for America's 250th birthday celebrations. I stood in Independence Hall on July 2, the date when the Congressional delegates actually voted for independence, and the date which John Adams considered the USA's true birthday. 

I visited Betsy Ross' Philadelphia shop where she sewed the first official U.S. flag, and peered down into Ben Franklin's basement. 

On July 4, I watched reenactors recreate the first official reading of the Declaration of Independence to the Army on George Washington's orders, with Washington's home, Mount Vernon, as their backdrop. Later, I watched fireworks explode over the Potomac River, illuminating what was once the back porch view of the "Father of Our Country."

In the following days, I visited the Marine and Army museums displaying the flag that flew over Iwo Jima, Union Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman's hat, and an interactive exhibit that used AI and life-size paintings to bring the key figures and events of the Revolution to life. 

I walked the fortifications of Fort McHenry outside Baltimore, where the U.S. flag flew after the 1814 British bombardment that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner." I even saw baseball legend Babe Ruth's childhood bat in his birthplace home not far away.

And the amazing thing was that wherever I went it felt as if history were coming back to life here in 2026. 

Independence Hall was set up almost exactly as it was in 1776, when the Continental Congress hotly debated independence, when Founding Father Caesar Rodney rushed in after an 18-hour ride to break the vote deadlock, or when Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the Committee of Five proposed a draft Declaration of Independence. 

The National Constitution Center has a hall of statues depicting all the men of the Constitutional Convention huddled in debate and discussion—just as they were over two centuries past. 

The guns of Fort McHenry are still pointed out from Baltimore's harbor, toward the Chesapeake Bay, where British ships once came to wreak destruction in the War of 1812. 

At Mount Vernon, George Washington's dining room, ballroom, and bedroom are set up as if expecting his return from a day in the fields overseeing the slaves whom eventually freed so they could live out his ideals of liberty. 

Wherever I went, I felt as if I'd stepped through a portal in time and returned to those early years of the American republic, when no one was so certain whether this radically new nation would rise—or fail at the outset.

Fireworks seen from Mount Vernon, Virginia. Image credit: Catherine Salgado

The Cause That Could Easily Have Failed

The Founding Fathers were just as unsure. When the Continental Congress delegates pledged to each other "our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor" in "support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence," many believed they were signing their death warrants.

For some of them, it was indeed just that—there were signers who lost their homes, their families, or their lives. All of them knew it would be a very difficult road to independence, if independence could even be achieved. 

Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Image credit: Catherine Calgado.

An army and navy largely composed of volunteers and raw recruits was taking on the most powerful empire in the world, Great Britain. As magnificent as the Declaration of Independence was, those who signed it and those who cheered it 250 years ago this July understood it was no guarantee of success. It was only the beginning of the fight.

Again and again, as I spoke with fellow participants in the Living Liberty Bell, the conversation returned to a single idea—that the Declaration's words, and the city that birthed them, were "the beginning" of American liberty and sovereignty.

One teenager told me, "It's a really fun day to be part of the community and it's Philly, so it's where it all started." 

An older man agreed. "Philadelphia is such an amazing city, and to be [in] America's birthplace, where it all started, and to be literally in the shadow of Independence Hall for the nation's 250th birthday is about as special as it gets." 

All of the Miss America contestants showed up to form part of the Living Liberty Bell, demonstrating that patriotism comes before personal fame. Miss Idaho told me how exciting it was to be there with her family for America 250.

That same sense of patriotic community swept through all the events in Philadelphia and at Mount Vernon. Whether it was the Living Liberty Bell participants belting out "God Bless America" while the media adjusted their cameras, the families trading stories while waiting hours in line for a glimpse inside Independence Hall, the Mount Vernon crowd standing or sitting in pouring rain yet cheering every lightning flash as enthusiastically as they cheered the July 4 fireworks, or the audience shouting "huzzah" for the reading of the Declaration of Independence—there was an unmistakable feeling of unity. 

That, indeed, is what the George Washington reenactor urged in his Independence Day speech: unity, and placing the well-being of the country ahead of our individual desires. 

Nowadays in America there are too few major events that bring citizens together to celebrate their nation as patriots. America 250 provided a rare but inspiring instance of such events, and illustrated that we still have many patriots here in the U.S. willing and ready to express public loyalty and love for our nation.

When the Continental Congress voted for independence, it's estimated that only a third of colonists supported independence while perhaps as many strongly opposed it. The history of America is the history of a small but passionate and dedicated minority of freedom-lovers changing the world, making it freer and more just. 

If only all the patriots who braved blazing sun or pouring rain or lengthy travel to attend America 250 events are ready to fight the culture war and reform our political system, we will see a renewal and flourishing of the United States of America indeed over the next 250 years.

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