Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order Monday creating a commission to plan Arkansas’ 250th statehood celebration. I’m old enough to remember the 200th anniversary.
The 15-member Arkansas 250 Commission will plan activities leading up to the United States’ semi-fifteenth anniversary on July 4, 2026. That day will mark 250 years since the United States declared independence in 1776.
The events will be part of a national celebration, America250, that began with Congress’s creation of the American Semi-Fifteenth Centennial Commission in 2016. The group encourages Americans to engage in service and charitable giving. It also runs an oral history project. Walmart is a founding sponsor.
These events are reminiscent of those of 1976, when the country celebrated its bicentenary.
My memories of that time are fleeting. I was six in the months leading up to the event and seven on July 4. One day, we first-graders dressed up as historical figures. My mother made me into a little Abraham Lincoln with a construction paper cook’s hat. I abandoned it for some reason in favor of a red, white, and blue paper thing we had glued together at school. A steam-powered American Freedom Train traveled the country’s railroads. It carried 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 unaware of what was happening elsewhere. Gerald Ford was in the White House after Richard Nixon was brought down by the Watergate scandal. Inflation was so high that Ford launched a public relations campaign called “Whip Inflation Now” and wore a button with the acronym WIN (Win the War). It didn’t work. To combat rising prices, the Federal Reserve would eventually raise interest rates to 20 percent. Meanwhile, America was going through devastating social changes, most pronounced in the 1960s, from the hallowed civil rights movement to “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Abroad, the United States had just withdrawn from the Vietnam War, a decades-long military effort to change the political culture of a foreign country. When they left, the enemy quickly gained power. Additionally, the Americans had a common enemy during the Cold War, the Russians, who would invade Afghanistan a few years later.
In short, this period was marked by a presidential election scandal, inflation, a culture war, a chaotic and unsuccessful end to a long American military occupation of Asia, and a Russian invasion of its neighbor.
The more things change…
What happened next? The 1980s were different from the previous two. It all started with the victory of the American hockey team over Russia – the most glorious sporting event of my life. Ronald Reagan was elected president as a patriotic optimist, and the country in some way reflected this attitude. Some problems related to the culture war changed, and the situation became calmer than in the 1960s. Memories of Vietnam faded. The Russians lost in Afghanistan. Later, the Cold War ended, at least temporarily.
The 1980s weren’t perfect, or even better than any other era. The decade has its detractors. Not all the seeds planted back then bore fruit. And the hairstyles were awful. If you millennials want a good laugh, check out your mom’s yearbook.
But things have definitely taken a different turn. The pendulum has swung slightly in the other direction.
Sort of. The problem with the pendulum analogy is that pendulums only swing back and forth. History is three-dimensional, so a pendulum can go in any direction.
So here we are today. Some of the same challenges exist, but others are different. Yes, we live in volatile and uncertain times, but when has life not been stable? None of us can truly predict the future. When Americans went to bed on December 6, 1941, they knew that parts of the world were at war, but they were focused on everyday life, as always. The next day, Pearl Harbor happened. Same thing on September 10, 2001.
What can a person do with all this uncertainty? Make a choice.
Be afraid. Get angry. Blame someone or people.
Or seek out anchors, including the oldest and most trusted ones. Humbly acknowledge that no one can figure it all out and relax a bit. Be grateful. Share stories. Serve others, which is never a bad response.
And we can party when we need to. I heard there’s a big birthday party planned.
I hope there will be a decree regarding cakes.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 17 Arkansas media outlets. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.
