A visitor leaves a “birthday wish” for the United States’ 250th Anniversary at the New York Historical (photo courtesy the museum)I work at the New York Historical, a national history museum in New York City, and am tasked with helping to build thoughtful programming on how to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. There is much to navigate: funding cuts, Meta policies that discourage discourse, and a cultural moment that defaults to partisanship and cynicism. Yet notwithstanding this terrain, when we actually engage citizens, we have been finding great idealism and optimism.“I wish citizens could gain the dedication to our country like the Greatest Generation had,” writes Letha from Texas on our virtual wish wall for the nation’s 250th. “I wish we could regain the unity they had, strongly dedicated to our country, working for a better future with a sense of duty and gratitude for our freedom.”Our Museum began its work just after the presidential election and immediately sought funding for the initiative. One nascent idea we had was building a digital platform to collect “birthday wishes” from citizens across the country for our nation and its democracy. In one meeting with a prospective and well-connected donor, I made my pitch for a site that would be both celebratory and sober — and rigorously nonpartisan. He quickly worried about this approach, suggesting that even the invocation of “birthday” was too light under the current circumstances. “I believe there is a more than 50% chance the President will cancel the midterm elections – and this is no time to celebrate a birthday.” Clearly, the mood is dark for at least some. Notwithstanding his counsel, we moved forward on a site entitled OnOur250th.org that invites users to leave five- to 50-word submissions. We built a coalition of 27 history museums across the nation to join in collecting physical and digital notes over the next year. Meeting with museum leaders from red, purple, and blue states was instructive. They were game to join — which was critical, as collecting notes from only New York City residents has limited value — yet issued sharp warnings: when they have engaged the public in recent years, they were flooded with attacks and anger. These museums helped us develop a list of “ground rules” that we could use so that we could be transparent about why we were not going to post unproductive submissions, which generally include profanity, violence, or irrelevant content.Visitors jotting their wishes for the future of the country on July 4, 2025, at the New York Historical (photo courtesy the museum)And then came Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. In the middle of the night, a junior museum administrator received emails informing us that promised funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services would be cut. Suddenly, the museum’s budget could be out of balance. We explored the path of corporate support. Yet, this world too has been turned upside down, as companies that have traditionally supported museum work on nonpartisan history projects now fear any civic engagement might be too controversial. Getting other, smaller museums to chip in was also not possible. So, we decided to move forward on our own, cutting spending on exhibition advertising and hoping some success would generate support — which wonderfully it did, as a generous foundation stepped up. I’ve led communications at nonprofits for decades and — with rare exceptions — subscribe to the “as long as they’re spelling our name right” school of public relations. But the complications around OnOur250th.org were different, particularly the gravitational force to be drawn into political conflicts. One media outlet was interested in covering our work, but only if we would agree to comment on the Trump Administration’s attacks on national museum leaders and arts funding. “Wouldn’t your museum want to speak up for democracy at this moment?” asked the reporter. Of course we are appalled at the attack on museums and their independence. But we exist for a more circumscribed purpose: to educate Americans about their history, so we can help create a more perfect union. And so we reached out to national television cable networks, eventually securing a coveted segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe for our institution’s leader. In a prior era, this interview, plus the NPR and arts publication coverage we received, would’ve been considered great victories. Now, one museum supporter emailed her lamentation that we were only launching on “liberal media.” When the museum sought to make a modest purchase of digital ads to promote OnOur250th.org on Facebook and Instagram, Meta flagged our content as “political.” That’s because, wait for it, our ad agency says we dared to use the word “democracy” in our copy.In fairness, the media have reason to consider celebrating our nation’s birthday a political act — three White House administrations in a mere five years have offered dramatically different approaches to the 250th. During his first term in 2020, President Trump launched a national commission for the 250th that quickly devolved into partisan accusations and arguments. President Biden tried a new approach that received modest traction, only to be quickly ended and then replaced by America250, led by former Fox News pundit and current US Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley, who observers point out was rewarded for organizing the recent military parade in Washington, DC, on the president’s birthday. Yet somehow and wonderfully, once we launched OnOur250th.org the postings have continually come in from our fellow citizens, and they have been breathtaking and inspiring. “My wish is for greater national unity and for us to return to standing as a country united in serving all its citizens,” wrote Phyliss from Illinois. Themes of equality, education, and opportunity are ever-present, and very rarely do we have to suppress a comment for violating our content guidelines. We’ve received submissions from middle schoolers to senior citizens, from almost every state in the union. It’s certainly not easy — I had no idea how hard it would be to persuade people to take the time to share a submission about democracy, and while we are at 10,000 or so now, we hope for many more.Much more locally, I found inspiration in a community in the Adirondacks. Every year, my wife and I spend the Fourth of July up north with friends, where key battles were fought in the Revolutionary War. We stay on a lake with 50 houses or so, where one family has an annual multi-generational gathering for days, the highlight of which is a parade organized down a dirt road, where about 30 adults, children, and dogs march while waving small flags.There’s a connection between this gathering and the founding of our nation. In 1776, in large and small cities, towns, and villages, copies of the Declaration of Independence were posted in public squares, which provoked gatherings of calls for independence.I feared that partisanship and animosity would infect the festivities this year, as the lake residents surely have a variety of views. I was wrong to worry. The parade had not an iota of politics, and people proudly waved American flags (and a few Pride flags) and wore goofy red, white, and blue attire. Soon the parade stopped in front of us, and we all sang along to “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” A nonpartisan gathering of community about our nation brought us joy and optimism. Similarly, Mike from Pennsylvania wrote on our wish wall, “May our country continue as it has been, a beacon of liberty and goodness to the world, as we strive to form a more perfect union.” By shining a light on these sentiments, surely we can be a more perfect union.