PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A lot has changed since 1976, the last time Philadelphia hosted a milestone anniversary of the nation’s founding. But some things are still similar, including how people feel about celebrating.
President Gerald Ford was the keynote speaker for the bicentennial on Independence Mall. He had not been elected but came to power after the resignations of both Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon after scandals that rocked public faith in the government. He acknowledged in his speech that citizens were questioning the future.
“Are our god-given rights secure, our hard-won liberties protected?”
This Fourth of July, polls from Pew Research, Gallup and The Associated Press-NORC show Americans asking many of the same questions. The findings? Most people are dissatisfied with the direction of the country; a minority felt proud or excited about the birthday; and many felt “indifferent” or “conflicted.”
In the last 50 years, there’s been more rigorous scholarship about the founders, the clash between their stated ideals and owning slaves — recently, the Trump administration’s effort to suppress those facts led a federal judge to invoke the dystopian novel “1984.”
Fifty years ago, Ford rallied his audience by encouraging them to keep asking questions.
“The very fact that we can ask these questions, that we can freely criticize our society, is cause for confidence itself.”
