By Mark Hancock for TOWNHALL
America turns 250 this year. Across the country, plans are already taking shape — parades, speeches, fireworks, commemorations of a story two and a half centuries in the making. Flags will wave. Bells will ring. We will honor the courage of 1776 and celebrate the birth of the Republic.
But beneath the celebration lies a deeper and more unsettling question: Do we still possess the virtues that built the nation we’re commemorating?
Our Republic was not secured by brilliant ideas alone, nor by the stroke of a quill or the flash of a musket. It was secured by the character of the men who lived those ideas — men whose inner lives were forged long before history knew their names.
John Adams stood with conviction.
George Washington embodied strength and reverence.
Patrick Henry displayed unflinching courage.
Madison stood with wisdom.
Revere demonstrated vigilance.
Today, those virtues are fading. And we’re witnessing the cost.
