By STEVE BRAWNER
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order Monday establishing a commission to plan Arkansas’ celebration of the country’s 250th birthday. I’m old enough to remember the 200th.
The 15-member Arkansas 250 Commission will plan activities leading to the United States’ semiquincentennial anniversary on July 4, 2026. That day will mark 250 years since the United States declared its independence in 1776.
The events will be part of a national birthday celebration, America250, that began with Congress’ creation of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission in 2016. That group is encouraging Americans to engage in service and charitable giving. It also is organizing an oral history project. Walmart is a founding sponsor.
The events call to mind those of 1976, when the country held its bicentennial celebration.
My memories are fleeting of that. I was six years old in the months leading up to it and seven on July 4. One day, we first-graders dressed up as historical figures. My mom turned me into a little Abraham Lincoln with a construction paper stovetop hat. I ditched it for some reason in favor of some red, white and blue paper thing we glued together at school. A steam-powered American Freedom Train traveled the nation’s railways. It contained historical artifacts including George Washington’s copy of the Constitution and a moon rock, according to freedomtrain.org. It passed through my hometown of Wynne.
Seven-year-old Steve was not aware of what was happening elsewhere. Gerald Ford was in the White House after Watergate brought down Richard Nixon. Inflation was so high that Ford started a public relations campaign,“Whip Inflation Now,” and wore a button emblazoned with the acronym WIN. It didn’t work. To combat the high prices, the Federal Reserve eventually would increase interest rates to 20%. Meanwhile, America had been undergoing wrenching social changes, most strongly in the 1960s, ranging from the sacred civil rights movement to “sex, drugs and rock and roll.” Overseas, the United States had only recently extricated itself from Vietnam, a decades-long military effort to change a foreign land’s political culture. When it left, the enemy quickly gained power. Also, Americans had a common Cold War enemy, the Russians, who within a few years would invade Afghanistan.
In summary, the era featured a presidential election-related scandal, inflation, a culture war, a chaotic and unsuccessful end to a long American military occupation in Asia, and a Russian invasion of its neighbor.
The more things change …
What happened next back then? The 1980s had a different vibe than the previous two. It started with the U.S. hockey team beating the Russians – still the most glorious sporting event of my lifetime. Ronald Reagan was elected president as a patriotic optimist, and the country kind of reflected that. Some of the culture war issues changed, and things were quieter than they were in the 1960s. Memories of Vietnam receded. The Russians lost in Afghanistan. Later the Cold War ended, at least temporarily.
The 1980s weren’t perfect, or necessarily even better than other eras. The decade has its detractors. Not all the seeds planted then have borne good fruit. And the hairstyles were terrible. If you millennials want a good laugh, look at your mom’s high school yearbook.
But things definitely took a turn. The pendulum swung back a little bit.
Well, sort of. The problem with the pendulum analogy is that pendulums only swing back and forth. History is three dimensional, so a pendulum could go in any direction.
And so we come to today. Some of the same challenges exist, and there are also different ones. Yes, this is an unsettled, uncertain time, but when was life not? None of us can really predict the future. When Americans went to bed on December 6, 1941, they were aware that parts of the world were at war, but they were mostly focused on everyday life, as always. The next day, Pearl Harbor happened. Same with Sept. 10, 2001.
What does a person do with all this uncertainty? Make a choice.
Get scared. Get mad. Blame somebody or some people.
Or search for anchors, including the old, reliable ones. Humbly acknowledge no one can figure it all out, and chill out a little bit. Be grateful. Share stories. Serve others, which is never the wrong answer.
And we can celebrate when celebrations are due. I hear there’s a big birthday party coming up.
I hope there’s an executive order for cake.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 17 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.
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