PLURIBUS 250: Roughly 100 years before our nation's founding, my 7th great grandfather, Edward Grantham, purchased land across the river from Jamestown for 1000 lbs of tobacco. The area would become know as Grantham's Reeds where he made turpentine naval stores. He was one of several colonist whose work helped bring more settlers and trade to rapidly growing colonial settlements.
Not everyone who migrated to colonial America came for the promise of freedom and liberty. Those who kept allegiances to the King and Church of England sought to govern the lives of settlers in ways that would not withstand the spirit of brewing revolution for better. Edward would soon find himself testing the promise of freedom and liberty, forced to pay court fines for "not going to church" and "entertaining Indians."
Edward's story is one of many in our nation's early reckonings with the choices we faced of whether we wanted to continue abdicating our freedom and liberty to the concentrated power of a king and state-imposed religion, or to each other as one independent nation free to choose our own destiny. 100 years later, in an act of revolution, We The People united to answer that question boldly, declaring in 1776 our independence through self-governance as one United States of America.
Our nation's motto, E. Pluribus Unum (out of many, ONE), was born in this revolutionary moment and would be placed on our money, buildings and woven into the fabric of our nation's culture. It memorialized for generations to come the core value that built our nation as a reminder of what it takes to defend it.
In the 250 years since, We The People fought every single attempt to place government or religious power over the supreme civil liberties and will of the people to chose for themselves. Our victories heralded a united resolve to welcome diverse voices into the growing chorus of our nation's anthem making us an example for all nations.
We The People didn't become 250 years old letting power hungry politicians violate our civil liberties so they can pick and chose who the government serves and who it does not. And every single time we flexed our supreme power to remind them who's the boss were the pivotal moments that guaranteed those freedoms for generations to come.