Happy Fourth of July, Mr. Adams

John Adams was convinced Americans would celebrate July 2 forever.

 After all, that's the day the Continental Congress actually voted for independence; July 4 was simply the day the Declaration was approved. 

Much like Star Wars was later retconned to make it appear Greedo shot first, history has largely rewritten America's birthday, and July 4 has stolen July 2's spotlight.

And maybe that's fitting.

For nearly 250 years, we've remembered America's founding through symbols, paintings and stories that are often simpler than the truth. But the real story isn't less inspiring.

It's more complicated.

The Declaration of Independence wasn't written in a vacuum. Its soaring words echoed ideas that had been debated by philosophers for generations. The men who signed it were imperfect: wealthy, influential, overwhelmingly white, and many were slaveholders. 

Yet they penned words so powerful that generations of Americans would eventually use them to challenge the very injustices those founders failed to overcome.

The Declaration tells us who we aspire to be. The Constitution tells us how to argue about getting there.

That's the relationship between the two documents.

One is America's heart.

The other is its operating system.

The tragedy is that the operational document initially fell short of the aspirational one.

The miracle is that the operational document also contained the means to improve itself.

No constitution is perfect. The true measure of a constitution isn't whether it begins perfectly. It's whether it allows a nation to become more just over time.

That journey has defined America. The Bill of Rights. The Reconstruction Amendments. Women's suffrage. Expanded voting rights.

 Each generation has been challenged to widen the circle of liberty and move the nation closer to the ideals proclaimed in 1776.

As the grandson of a Japanese immigrant who came to America seeking opportunity and the grandson of a Tennessean who came west chasing the same dream, I don't love America because it has always been perfect.

I love America because of its promise.

I love the idea that our rights do not come from kings or governments, but are inherent to every human being. I love that our founding documents have inspired people around the world to pursue liberty, democracy and self-government. 

I love that our Constitution wasn't frozen in 1787, but was designed with the means to become more just over time.

Nearly two centuries later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a "promissory note" written to every American.

His challenge wasn't to discard our founding documents because they were imperfect. It was to insist that our nation finally live up to them.

The Founders didn't finish America. They started it.

They gave us extraordinary ideals, an imperfect framework and the means to improve it.

Every generation since has been asked the same question:

Will you leave this republic more just, more free and more faithful to its ideals than you found it?

That's why I celebrate Independence Day.

Not because America has always kept its promises.

But because, generation after generation, Americans have continued the work of redeeming that promissory note, expanding the circle of liberty, and moving this nation one step closer to the ideals it proclaimed in 1776.

Happy Fourth of July, Mr. Adams.