To the Editor:

Like many people, I’ve been thinking about our country’s 250th birthday and what it means. The other day I listened to a podcast conversation between Ezra Klein and Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. My wife and I visited both of these places a few years ago, and I was moved to tears. The exhibits on slavery, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights struggle were devastating, but what struck me hardest were the everyday signs: “Colored” bathrooms, water fountains, swimming pools and signs that stated, simply “Coloreds not admitted.” These weren’t distant historical artifacts — they existed during my lifetime. I’m 74. I saw some of them myself growing up. I’m ashamed of that.

I grew up in the North, where those signs were much less common, but racism and bigotry were not. Like most people, I’ve always liked to think I’m not bigoted. But I’m not sure that’s completely true. Over the years I’ve come to think of myself like an alcoholic who’s been through the 12Step program: I need to remind myself, daily, that I have biases. That honesty has kept me “sober” for 40 years.

Stevenson made an important point: those signs didn’t just tell Black Americans where they couldn’t go — they told them who they were supposed to be as a people. Lesser. Not equal. And because of that, like many people, I’ve come to believe our country wasn’t fully “born” until 1965, when the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act finally codified equality under the law. Even then, it has taken decades for behavior and attitudes to catch up. That work is still ongoing.

I think the United States is the best country in the world in many ways, but not in all ways. I’m a proud, patriotic American. I get choked up when we succeed at the Olympics, the Ryder Cup or the World Cup. But pride doesn’t mean pretending we’re perfect. The healthiest families acknowledge their flaws and work to improve. I see our country the same way — a work in progress, just as the Founders intended. Most of them knew slavery was wrong, but also knew the nation wasn’t ready to confront it. They understood America would always be evolving.

They never would have said, “Make America Great Again!” They might simply have said, “Make America Great.”

Glenn Duerr
Waynesville