Celebrating America’s Birthday at a Pivotal Moment

by Liz Goldner

July 2, 2026

Joe Sohm, photograph from “American Mosaic,” celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. Music by composer Peter Boyer. Courtesy of Joe Sohm and Peter Boyer.

I have never been a flag waiver or backyard patriot reveling in Fourth of July parades. But our nation’s birthday has always been a time to reflect on the familiar sights, sounds and images relating to the sweep and scope of America and Americana.

This year, as we commemorate our country’s 250th anniversary, our reputed President attempted to co-opt this momentous holiday with a barbaric UFC fight on the White House lawn, a failed attempt to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool an “American flag blue,” and a highly partisan Trump rally on the National Mall after seeing most of the entertainment talent flee his sparsely attended Great American State Fair. As David Frum wrote in “The Atlantic” that “Trump has made a pitiful shambles of what should have been a glorious moment.”

Jesse Wilcox Smith, “Have YOU a Red Cross Service Flag?,” 1918, print, 32 x 25”. Courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Stockbridge, MA.

Conversely, President Obama said at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, "It is our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens, and the possibility that, despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together."

Regardless of what activities our current president engages in to make a hash of our semiquincentennial, I am celebrating my own memories of the sights and sounds of our country, accumulated over a lifetime, in the belief that we have arrived at a pivotal moment, and that we will overcome the nation’s current travails.

Having grown up in three of the original 13 colonies, I lived in and visited homes with architecture inspired by the old world Europe. I passed by homes with signs reading, “Washington Slept Here.” I visited Colonial Williamsburg, the reconstructed 18th century Virginia town with costumed actors portraying historical figures, and hiked the Appalachian Trail, which extends through 14 Eastern states. I visited a replica of the Mayflower near Cape Cod, and the nearby re-creation of the original Plymouth Colony. I walked to the top of the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, MA, with its displays commemorating the establishment of many New England towns.

Tim O’Brien, “Vote!,” 2020, oil on board, 19 ¼ x 12 3/4”. Courtesy of the Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Stockbridge, MA.

I have lived with the sounds of Americana, including but well beyond the patriotic marches of John Philip Sousa. These include music extolling America’s grandeur by composers like George Gershwin (“Porgy and Bess”), Charles Ives (“Three Places in New England”), Aaron Copland (“Appalachian Spring”), and Leonard Bernstein (“On the Town”). In Junior High, I learned the words of Emma Lazarus’s sonnet, “The New Colossus” (famously inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty) by singing the poem’s final stanza, “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” set to the music of Irving Berlin’s 1949 musical, “Miss Liberty.”

At a recent concert by the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, CA, I was treated to a performance of a new addition to that compendium, “American Mosaic,” a multimedia collaboration by composer Peter Boyer with photographer of Americana Joe Sohm. The multimedia experience blends orchestral music, live narration, quotations from the Founders, and iconic images embracing people of all ages, races and ethnicities. The composition’s movements are evocatively titled “The New World,” “Rivers, Rails and Roads,” “Cities Arising,” “The North Star,” “The American Spirit” and “In Defense of Freedom.”

Images of America  seared into my consciousness include those depicting our ambitions struggles to establish and subsequent efforts to uphold and expand democratic rights. A personal favorite is a copy of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, included among 250 artifacts included in the exhibition “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness” at the National Museum of American History.

Norman Rockwell, “Freedom of Speech,” 1943, offset color lithograph on paper, 48 x 35 1/2”. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Norman Rockwell’s 1943 series of paintings, “The Four Freedoms” — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear — are based on FDR’s 1941 State of the Union address. These familiar images continue to inspire me. Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” illustrates a working-class man speaking courageously to an attentive crowd. It serves as an antidote to today’s dysfunctional political climate and honors the many fearless citizens who refuse to accept the current regime’s efforts to destroy so many constitutional rights.

John Falter, “Family Portrait on the Fourth,” 1952, cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post, July 5, 1952. Courtesy of the Saturday Evening Post Archive.

Other images that memorably express American liberty include Jessie Willcox Smith’s “Have YOU a Red Cross Service Flag?” (1918), created during World War I, and Tim O’Brien’s dramatic “Vote” (2020), from a time of attempted voter repression, especially for people of color. There is also John Falter’s “Family Portrait on the Fourth” (1952), which served as a cover illustration for the “Saturday Evening Post.”

The sights, sounds and images of our country not only help to illustrate and reflect the ideals of America's evolving story, they strengthen the values that we celebrate. As Michelle Obama remarked at the Obama Center opening, “… you all have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when we truly see each other, when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another, oh, there is no limit to how high we can go.”

Liz Goldner is an award-winning art writer based in Laguna Beach. She has contributed to the LA Times, LA Weekly, KCET Artbound, Artillery, AICA-USA Magazine, Orange County Register, Art Ltd. and several other print and online publications. She has written reviews for ArtScene and Visual Art Source since 2009. 

Liz Goldner’s Website.