There are laws ordering you to turn your money over to a tax collector, fill out forms and get approval before building, traveling, or doing things involving “risk,” and demanding you “obey all applicable signage.” But have you ever heard of a law declaring you should celebrate?
That is what Public Law 114-196 attempts to do. Passed and signed by President Obama back in July of 2016, it is known as the United States Semiquincentennial Commission Act. It passed the House of Representatives on a voice vote with no “nays” audible.
A week later it passed the United States Senate on a motion of “unanimous consent.” Such motions are defeated by a single lone Senator standing and saying, “I object!” No Senator did.
So the Commission was formed and given authority to spend up to $15 million of your taxes. That amount in 2021 was increased by another $8 million. Since we live at a time when no stone of federal spending should remain unturned, it is appropriate to ask, “Why celebrate a ‘semi quincentennial?’”
First, “semiquincentennial” means half of 500. But other terms are also used describing the same marked time. “Sestercentennial” means “a half-century before a 300th anniversary,” and “bisesquicentennial” means the “second 50-year mark between centennials.”
Increasingly, and with no slight to the term used in the original 2016 law, Americans are gravitating to the term “quarter millennial,” now used on the Commission website and meaning just what it sounds like, one-fourth of a thousand years.
Still, why is it an “event?”
In Idaho, the answer is three-fold:
One, because it is a birthday of something really, really important, and we celebrate birthdays as meaningful ways to say “thank you” for gifts in our lives that bring us joy today.
Two, because the past is prologue, and remembering important events in the past helps us understand what is happening today. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves that 250 years ago something happened in America, something many humans in our current world envy and desire for themselves.
And three, it gives us a moment to ponder what has changed and whether or not we are still on the same path. Idaho was not one of the original 13 colonies engaged in the struggle 250 years ago. But we are one of 50 today, and the question remains, “Are we still engaged in the same struggle?”
What is that thing that brings Americans joy, is the envy of the world, and many Idahoans seek still today? A simple concept: self-government.
The United States of America is already the longest continuous experiment in national self-government on earth today, even dating our current system only to 1788 and the adoption of our Constitution. Similar attempts at self-governing constitutions were not adopted in Norway until 1814, and the Netherlands in 1815.
But the quarter-millennial for the United States also achieves a new record. Back in 1976, we hailed America’s second century as it tied the record when Cleisthenes initiated “citizen-rule” in Athens, an experiment that ran with surprising success over two centuries until the Macedonians brutally ended it in 322 BCE.
With America at 250 we are no longer “tied.” We can claim without question to be living in the longest continuous self-governing nation to ever exist on the face of the earth.
And how is that working for us? To paraphrase Ben Franklin, our predecessors bought with their blood for us a Republic. Now, can we keep it?
Whether or not Public Law 114-196 is a worthwhile and momentous achievement of self-government or just another boondoggle, hinges on whether it helps us answer that very question with a defiant and unequivocal “Absolutely.”
Trent Clark of Soda Springs has served in the leadership of Idaho business, politics, workforce, and humanities education.
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We welcome comments, however there are some guidelines:
Keep it Clean: Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexual language. Don't Threaten: Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful: Don't lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice: No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading. Be Proactive: Report abusive posts and don’t engage with trolls. Share with Us: Tell us your personal accounts and the history behind articles.