Exiting the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

As our nation’s 247th birthday looms large, I today share some knowledge and a challenge regarding your home.

Today we have a lot of Americans cutting America down every chance they get. Now I know that aggravates many of the rest of us, but it really shouldn’t. We all know America isn’t perfect, never has been, never will be. American citizens calling out those imperfections shouldn’t be a surprise or disappointment.

But there is an essential element of our national story that too many of those wielding the axes have forgotten (or perhaps never learned). Before America was a gleam in our founding fathers’ eyes there were thousands of years of human experience garnered living inside many different kinds of societies. Much like the nation we call home today, some of those experiences were positive, and some of them were negative.

For all of their human flaws — which just like humans today were plentiful in number — those founding fathers were far from dummies. They were men of culture and education, well-studied in ancient and modern world history of the day, and in particular the governments found within that history. From a position of knowledge they meticulously analyzed the negatives and positives found within all of them.

When their new homeland navigated on an inevitable path toward independence they combined forces to cumulatively create an unprecedented system of government whose power was rooted in the common citizenry and not in any ruling class, monarch, or dictator. In doing so they took proven effective elements of governing from recorded human history and combined them into one unique ‘whole’ that, to borrow a term, turned the world upside down.

In essence, what they created was a ‘best of’ form of governing, composed of bits and pieces gathered throughout the course of recorded human history.

So what makes that special? The successes and failures from all of humanity over the thousands of years preceding provided the foundations for the system of government they created. They took what history had proven worked and included it — but they also were very deliberate in avoiding what history had also proven didn’t work.

In other words, what they gave us is a framework based on all of all that came before them. But, as the system of government we inherited from them is based on human experiences, it is no more perfect than the humans involved.

With that said, those founders understood that their here and now of 1776 was not the same as the here and now experienced in 1676 any more than it would be in 1876, 1976 or 2023. That’s why they had the foresight to create a system designed to grow to fit their nation as it evolved along the way.

So, with all of that said, if you aren’t happy with America, understand that the foundation of your homeland is literally anchored on the successes of untold generations of human experience. If something is wrong here, it’s not so much because of the concept of America as much as the people in it and what they have done with the framework since built on top of that original foundation.

Which brings me to my challenge. If any of those founding fathers could reanimate themselves in the here and now, I can almost guarantee you their question for us would simply be this:

“What are you going to do with what we created for you?”

Read that again. Not what went wrong, not who is to blame, not who did this or that wrong, not anything based on what has passed. Why? Because what is passed is over and done and cannot be undone. But what can be impacted is that yet to come.

And who can impact that? I can. You can. WE can.

But when I say impact, understand what I mean. We may not be able to change the nation as individuals, but we can absolutely impact those around us in our lives. Instead of complaining about the multitude of issues all of us know are wrong, find something in your existence that you can impact positively, and strive to do so consistently.

If all of us would do just that, then those small acts of care and improvement can combine to create a real wave of positive difference. and who knows? Perhaps America as a whole will follow suit.

But this much I know as fact: nothing happens by doing nothing.

America is my home, your home, our home. Any home that is ignored or neglected will eventually collapse due to decay. You have to care for it, and yes, sometimes even take out the trash.

But, as long as that home is cared for and stands on a proven foundation, hope remains for it to not only endure but also to continue to shine as a place of hope for others.

And that, my friends, is the very essence of what this nation was founded to be. Whether or not it will remain so for future generations has little to do with the mistakes made in our past as much as what we choose to learn from them and do with our future individually and collectively.

Do just that, then we will all be proud Americans.