Usually, for the beginning of spring, I ask you to Ask Roger Anything. You still may – I encourage it – but I also want to turn the tables a bit. What, if anything, are you doing to celebrate the sestercentennial of the United States?
No, I hadn’t heard of the word before either. My spellcheck does NOT like it. As far as I know, the prefix is a Latin term meaning “two and a half.” It also has other definitions. I’ve been using semiquincentennial (half of five hundred years) or quartermillennial because I find it easier to use.
Anyway…
I remember the bicentennial in 1976 with much more enthusiasm than I have for this year’s model. Reenactments and the Tall Ships were events I watched on television.
For 2026, the “United States Semiquincentennial Commission is the congressionally appointed body in charge of promoting and coordinating” the events. The calendar seems rather sparse, but maybe I missed something. There IS a Water Lantern Festival in Albany, NY on June 27. The New York State Museum in Albany will open a huge exhibit this summer to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The process was a political football for a while. Then the politicization got worse as FOTUS, in 2025, “created the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday to also promote and plan the events.”
Daily Kos notes the UFC fights on the White House South Lawn on June 14 and an Indy Car race around DC. Naturally, there will be a lot of Trump 250 merch available.
And yet…
At the point when I might be [might be? That’s understating it!] feeling discouraged, I heard a recommendation for a book. The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit. It “surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability…
“While the white nationalist and authoritarian backlash drives individualism and isolation, this new world embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs, and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.”
On The View, Ken Burns reiterates that his latest project, The American Revolution, is his most important yet. It dissects how the internal conflicts of “all men are created equal” played out. And, implicitly, still does.
I think I need to go to the next No Kings rally on March 28.
Still, you CAN Ask Roger Anything
You may leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.
