We Need to Embrace the Hopeful Story of America’s Founding

"Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States," a 1940 painting by Howard Chandler Christy (1873–1952) located on the East Stairway, House of Representatives wing of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The Indian Reporter via Wikimedia Commons

Commentary

Many of us have favorite stories we can recite by heart. They may be bedtime stories we heard as children—stories we repeat to the young people in our lives. We may know the stories of our families—where we came from and how we arrived where we are now. Some of these stories are fairy tales or tall tales, some have unfavorable points of departure, but most have happy endings.