What a difference five decades make.

Those who were around in 1976 remember that the nation’s Bicentennial was a big, big deal. Everywhere you looked, there was something to remind you of our nation’s 200th birthday. Bicentennial logos appeared on everything from cereal boxes to beverage bottles and cans. Everything had a red, white and blue color scheme. There were patriotic TV specials. American flags were ubiquitous.

The hype started long before July 4, 1976 and it wasn’t just at the national level. Grass roots Bicentennial fever was evident in cities and towns across America, including right here in Wakefield.

In April 1975, more than a year before the event, the Board of Selectmen appointed a Wakefield Bicentennial Committee.

Town Meeting appropriated a sum of money to fund the local Bicentennial observance. A Bicentennial proclamation was read at the start of the 1976 Annual Town Meeting. proclamation read before this year’s Town Meeting, I missed it.)

A Wakefield Bicentennial concert was held in May of 1976 and a Bicentennial Ball was held in June. There was a local Bicentennial poster contest.

Fast forward 50 years to America’s 250th birthday. We are two weeks from July 4th, and if you’re not actively looking for it, you could easily miss the fact that the United States is closing in on a quarter of a millennium.

What changed?

Some blame the current political division in the country. But in 1976, we were just coming off the Vietnam War era, one of the most divisive periods in modern U.S. history. Yet despite the anti-American hangover from the 1960’s, the national psyche had not fully developed the negative self-image that we see today.

But now, those who are ashamed of their country have had an additional 50 years to solidify their hold on the culture. A few more generations of students have been taught in school that they live on stolen land in a country built on oppression by genocidal colonizers.

This tendency toward American self-loathing has always been there on the margins, but it has grown over the last 50 years, exploding in the last decade.

And now, for the year leading up to the 250th, those who are embarrassed by their country have defined patriotism as standing on street corners with signs proclaiming their hatred of the President of the United States. If their side isn’t in power, they see nothing worth celebrating.

People are reluctant to stand up to the Weekend Insurrectionists and their “allies,” knowing that they will be held in contempt and blamed for putting the second coming of Hitler in the White House. Individuals and institutions have learned that it’s easier not to wear their American pride on their sleeves, even if it means a muted, minimalist 250th celebration.

Nice job, Resistance. Mission accomplished.
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[This column originally appeared in the June 18, 2026 Wakefield Daily Item.]

Transistor radio photo by Joe Haupt, used under a Creative Commons license.