Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

One country, one constitution, one destiny

Fireworks on July 4
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."

“One country, one constitution, one destiny,” Daniel Webster said in a historic 1837 speech defending the American Union.

This of Fourth of July, 187 years after Webster’s speech and the 248th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence, Webster would no doubt be dismayed to find his quote reconstrued by popular opinion to read something like this:

“Divided country, debated constitution, and as for destiny, we’re going to hell in a hand-basket.”


But we’re not! “We, the people” of this great country are doing just what we are supposed to be doing and what we have always done. We are arguing, we are adjusting, we are changing with the times, growing, individually and societally.

The time to seriously worry about the United States is if we are not debating. That would mean we are afraid of the repercussions of dissention, worried about retaliation or accepting that our views have been corralled by a dictator. We may have homogenized, to different degrees, living in the United States, but Americans are not the Borg. This is a country of individuals.

Pundits on either side of extremism like to use our Constitution as justification for their favorite maxims, evidence of their ordained views. The Constitution has withstood jabs from all directions, been interpreted one way, changed, walked back, reassessed, added to. It is a living document, and though we are not celebrating its ratification this week, our forefathers must be celebrated for that. Truly, an accomplishment of the ages.

Many specialize in romanticizing, or villainizing, our past. But we cannot know, really, what it was like to live in another’s time, any more than we can zip back 248 years to Philadelphia and tell Thomas Jefferson it’d be much easier to draft the Declaration of Independence in Google Docs. Still, from our enlightened position, where hindsight must be 20/20, we stand in judgment of our ancestors. But tearing down the past is like slapping a college graduate’s hand for spilling her milk when she was 2. The value is in learning from our past. Judging our predecessors does not change history, any more than devaluing our contemporaries changes the present.

The truth is, we cannot help but swirl in the broth of our own times. Like it or not, those alive with you on this planet today are the people you are stuck with. And our country’s problems … well, they’re yours, too.

The United States has always brooked controversy, and has always had challenges. Is there a country that doesn’t, a person who doesn’t? Working through them is the true test; the pendulum swings, but must not topple the watch-tower. In each era, people consider theirs the worst of times and, simultaneously, the best. Did your parents like your music? Do you like your children’s?

This week, to varying extents, we will be caught up in celebrating the birthday of this big, wild and diverse country. Our surge of patriotism may last only a day, yet it is something to be treasured. As George William Curtis wrote, “Patriotism is the vital condition of national permanence.”

Consider, if all our feuds were suddenly mended, it would likely mean we were united against a common enemy, but another world war is far too extreme a correction for political disagreement. Let’s just keep arguing.

Have your opinions; they’re yours. Or change them; they’re yours to change.

And believe this country, where you can freely express those opinions, is often wrong. Because it is. But it is often in the right as well and, best of all, it is trying to get there.

We will hear songs this week we consider surging with patriotism, such as “Born in the USA.” Although those lyrics were used as the proud anthem of several presidential campaigns, among them Ronald Reagan’s and Donald Trump’s, Bruce Springsteen’s song is actually about a disillusioned Vietnam vet.

Contradictions, conflicts, misinterpretations: That is America.

So, this week, somewhere between the burgers and the fireworks, between watching the fireflies and children writing their names with sparklers, listen to, hum or belt out one of our truly great patriotic songs, like “America, the Beautiful.”

Because our country — despite our differences, and because of them — is so very beautiful.

Read More

"They want us divided sign" that represents partisanship among democrats and republicans.

In recent philosophical and political discourse, the concept of “deep disagreement” has gained traction as a diagnostic for the dysfunction of contemporary public debate.

Getty Images, Jena Ardell

Manufacturing Dissent: How ‘Deep Disagreement’ Serves the Anti-Democratic Elite

In recent philosophical and political discourse, the concept of “deep disagreement” has gained traction as a diagnostic for the dysfunction of contemporary public debate. The premise is simple yet highly seductive: Some disagreements we are told are so fundamental, so rooted in incompatible worldviews or paradigmatically incommensurable epistemologies, that no meaningful argumentation is possible between the disagreeing parties. The implication is stark: Reason and Dialogue cannot bridge the gulf. But this diagnosis, while sounding sobering and serious, is in fact a dangerous illusion. It is an intellectual sleight of hand that masks both the manufactured nature of such disagreements and the vested interests that thrive on perpetuating them.

Indeed, contrary to its glossy surface neutrality, the notion of “deep disagreement” is not merely a philosophical tool but has become a performative trope, perfectly suited for an age of outrage, polarization, and algorithmic amplification. It helps rationalize the breakdown of dialogue, casting it not as a product of bad faith, deliberate miscommunication, or elite manipulation, but as a tragic inevitability of divergent rationalities. In doing so, it gives cover to a much darker political agenda: The delegitimation of democracy itself.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bipartisan Bonding on the Ballfield: Women in Congress Find Unity Through Softball
a yellow baseball sitting on top of a table
Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash

Bipartisan Bonding on the Ballfield: Women in Congress Find Unity Through Softball

On a recent hot and steamy July evening in Washington, D.C., the players for a unique sporting event were warming up. Audi Field, home of the DC United and Washington Spirit soccer teams, had been converted into a baseball diamond. And the athletes were not some group of high-paid professionals – they were amateurs at softball, but not at politics.

This was the annual Women’s Congressional Softball Game, now in its 17th year. The game was founded by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) and former Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri) as a vehicle to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), a nonprofit that helps young women affected by breast cancer by providing resources and support. Wasserman Schultz was a breast cancer survivor at the age of 41 and explained in an interview before the game why she founded the event. “I knew when I came out on the other side, I wanted to use my platform to be able to help fill a void in the fight against breast cancer,” she said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz: Connecting With Community

Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz was sworn in for a second term as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 129th district, January 8, 2025

Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz: Connecting With Community

Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz is an American businesswoman and politician who is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 129th district.

Cepeda-Freytiz was elected on November 8, 2022, and returned to Harrisburg for a second term after being re-elected in 2024. The 129th district includes parts of Reading and Spring Township as well as Sinking Spring, West Reading, and Wyomissing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stitching & Sustainability: Refugee Artisan Initiative

ruler, measuring tape, working hands

Stitching & Sustainability: Refugee Artisan Initiative

Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, there has been an increase in anxiety around citizenship for immigrants and refugees in the United States.

By the end of his first day, Trump signed 10 executive orders relating to immigration. This included an order to halt refugee admissions, including tens of thousands of refugees who had already been cleared to come to the U.S. by the Biden administration. The order, “REALIGNING THE United States REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PROGRAM,” largely targets the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Keep ReadingShow less