Pat Wandling: Let us celebrate Independence Day 2025 from sea to shining sea
This weekend, we Americans celebrate our Independence Day with our families and communities, enjoying parades, fireworks, and other traditions. (And a day-off!) But the deep significance of the historic day can be submerged with the passage of time and trends.
I’m taking a moment to reflect upon this date, our founders and other brave revolutionaries, along with our famous Bucks County revolutionary landmarks — especially at a time when many Americans report feeling less and less pride in our country.
It is surprising and disheartening. Independence Day is a tremendous celebration of our nationhood’s genesis: the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The Declaration was the bold, brave “shout-out” of the separation of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain.
It’s a great story that needs to be retold in all its historic glory — the strategies, the battles, and the thousands of lives lost in pursuit of freedom and liberty — and emphasized in the wake of present day division, discord, and attacks on our institutions.
America was founded on the fundamental doctrines of natural rights and the rule of law, but how difficult it was to win our freedom and achieve that. Independence Day is a recurring victory celebration.
In advance of this special day, Gallup, Inc. released a poll that found America has experienced a dramatic decline in national pride, oddly split along party lines. Only 58% of Americans say they’re extremely proud to be American. Talk about timing!
Many Americans feel less pride in their country than over the past decade and each generation is less patriotic than the generation before, according to the survey results released on Monday. The split between Republicans and Democrats is at 56%, the widest since 2001.
The downward trend among the younger generation is also alarming. Only about four in ten adults who are part of Generation Z, those born between 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American. The figure is six in ten for millennials, those born between 1980 to 1996. And at least seven in ten adults in older generations are less patriotic. Notably, each generation is less patriotic than the prior one. And the decline is primarily driven by Democrats, a mere 36% of whom consider themselves proud Americans.
Ask anyone you know if they feel patriotic and proud of their country and you may see a split along party lines, but that says less about our past and more about the politics of the day.
On the other hand, we are fortunate to live in Bucks County with its rich history and special role in the American Revolution. While Washington Crossing Park is a linchpin, there are buildings still standing where Gen. George Washington met with financiers, strategists, and citizen soldiers. Many of the notable historic sites of the period are in Lower Bucks County: Bensalem, Bristol, Morrisville, Newtown, Warwick, and Upper Makefield where Washington’s troops were camped before the Battle of Trenton was launched in the dark of night from the Delaware River shore in what is now Washington Crossing State Park.
Many people appreciate our county with its history and opportunities to connect and renew our pride in America on this the 250th anniversary. Bucks County is dotted with many places where strategies evolved in taverns and chilly houses and the Army marched and camped on Bucks County fields, encountering friends and foes. Some died from disease or wounds and are buried in or near Washington Crossing.
Walk through the pages of history in places like Summerseat, circa 1765, in Morrisville Borough. It was the home of two signers of the Declaration of Independence — Robert Morris and George Clymer — and a place where Washington visited and conducted business with Morris, the financier of the Revolutionary War. Summerseat, now a museum, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.
Robert Morris championed Morrisville, then called “Falls of the Delaware,” as the future national capital and he had some early success. As we know, however, it didn’t come to fruition!
And contemplate the Keith House, another site believed to have been Washington’s headquarters before that momentous Battle of Trenton when Washington’s troops crossed the Delaware to surprise and defeat the Hessians. The site, which is also referred to as Headquarters Farm, is located on Pineville Road in Upper Makefield. It is a place worth visiting, like so many others that had a hand in history.
Happy Independence Day 2025, from sea to shining sea.
Pat Wandling hosts Speak Your Piece weekdays at noon on WBCB 1490.
