As a three-term mayor of Wilmington, Jim Baker was certainly outspoken. He said what was on his mind.
One thing I remember him saying was that he was a fan of the original Star Trek series.
He made this out-of-the-blue remark in front of a crowd of about 100 people gathered for an event at Delaware History Museum in the early 2000s. Chuckles and murmurs followed. Guests had gathered for Delaware history, not for chit-chat about futuristic science-fiction.
Undeterred, Mayor Baker explained himself.
“What I loved about Star Trek was that they showed a world where we had solved all the problems that plague us today,” he said. “They headed out into space to explore as a united human race.”
Famine, terrorism, poverty, racism, addiction, disease. Somehow humanity in the future had overcome all of those challenges. At least in the world of Star Trek.
Of course, in the real world, these challenges still exist. Many seem insurmountable.
However, just as Baker once spoke at a history musuem about a hopeful future, our country’s upcoming 250th gives us a unique opportunity to examine our past while looking toward tomorrow’s horizon.
With that in mind, we asked a few noteworthy Delawareans — elected officials, community leaders, and area artists — what America 250 means to them personally, in 250 words or less. Baker’s thoughts get the discussion going.
We hope the following messages reach you wherever you are and that, together, we can chart a course for a better future. Towards that, let’s boldly go …
— Jim Miller, Director of Publications
Jim Baker
Mayor of Wilmington, 2001-2013
This nation was established 250 years ago and grew into the largest immigrant country in history; a nation made up of almost every different type of people in the world. Every religion, political belief, color, and cause are governed by the same constitutional laws which provide for the crucially important separation of powers and individual rights that directly affect every citizen.
Americans have been arguing over the Constitution ever since it was adopted, but this within itself has strengthened the nation, and made it address issues that were not addressed 250 years ago. The United States is the only nation that has so openly faced its own evils and has worked with its allies to face evils in the world. Without the shared sacrifices of the United States, Russia, and England in World War II, we’d have a very different world, one allowing the destruction of other people just because they might be different.
Our nation almost broke apart over an evil that lasted centuries and caused a Civil War that killed over 600,000 people. The war ended slavery, but it did not end the evils of discrimination, hate, and racial oppression.
Over time, Americans have faced many obstacles, but good people throughout the history of our country have struggled to make our Ship of State dock in the precious ports of Freedom, Justice, Liberty, Democracy, and Equality that God has granted to all humans.
Every American has a good reason to celebrate our 250 years of democratic struggle.
Lisa Blunt Rochester
U.S. Senator from Delaware, 2025-present
Reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America, E Pluribus Unum — “out of many, one” — rings in my mind like the Liberty Bell. Over the course of my life, I’ve lived, worked, and traveled to over 33 countries. I’ve witnessed places with no rule of law, and no freedoms of speech, press, or peaceful assembly. I know what it looks like when the peaceful transfer of power is imperiled. What I know for sure is there is no place like home.
Like our nation, I was born in Philadelphia. My family moved to Delaware in 1969, after the National Guard occupation of Wilmington. From the tumult of the 1960s to 1976, I learned patriotism extended beyond saying the Pledge of Allegiance — patriotism is about acts of service.
Many have seen the scarf I carry that bears a copy of the “Returns of Qualified Voters and Reconstruction Oath” from 1867, which granted my formerly enslaved great-great-great grandfather the right to vote. For me, it’s representative of what we have overcome. But as we witnessed on January 6th, 2021, it’s also a reminder that we’re still at a crossroads. We must answer the question: Is this a country for some of us, or ALL of us?
Our mosaic of voices, lived experiences, and histories are essential to a thriving democracy. And because I believe in us, I still have bright hope in the divinely inspired documents that promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I still believe: Out of many, one!
Chris Coons
U.S. Senator from Delaware, 2010-present
The Declaration of Independence begins with a foundational call: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It mirrors what my parents instilled in me from Scripture: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Both, at their core, are about human dignity. We are called to stand up for one another, to ensure and fight for each other’s dignity, to keep trying to make real a nation where everyone has an equal shot. That’s what drew me to public service, first at non-profits like the National Coalition for the Homeless and the “I Have A Dream” Foundation, then in New Castle County government and the Senate.
Those ideas are under threat today, but as I think of our founding, I still feel optimistic. As senator, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to other countries as a representative of our nation and the people of Delaware. I’ve noticed our national anthem has something rare among nations: a celebration of a battle lost. The rockets and bombs we sing about are British, illuminating a battlefield devastated. It’s not a song about might and power, but about resilience, even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. Even when the night is dark, we find the light.
You can never count Americans — or Delawareans — out. That’s what 250 years have taught us, and it’s what we need to do today: Even when we are divided, we keep reaching for hope — and keep recommitting to our founding promise to each other.
Wilfredo Campos
Wilmington Police Chief, 2023-present
For me, America means community and opportunity.
When my family first moved to Wilmington from Puerto Rico when I was a child, we experienced that sense of community when we tragically lost our home in a fire. Neighbors stepped in to provide us with food, clothing and shelter — banding together to help us navigate a life-altering crisis.
Throughout my career as a Wilmington Police Officer, and now as Chief, I have seen this community come together time and again to support residents in need. While our beautiful city is home to a diverse range of neighborhoods, every pocket of Wilmington has that strong sense of community. Neighbors care about one another, and they care deeply about the issues that affect their neighborhood.
America is also about opportunity, and hope for individuals who are seeking a better life.
This country afforded me the opportunity to grow, and ultimately to achieve my dreams. I am proud to have served this country through the United States Army Reserve, and to spend the next nearly 30 years serving this city as a police officer.
While those in the law enforcement profession are often exposed to some of the most difficult aspects of humanity, I am still filled with optimism for the opportunities that people have in America. Regardless of where you come from — and no matter your race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or political ideology — if you work hard, you can achieve your greatest ambitions.
Traci Evadne Currie
Poet, Professor, Teaching Artist
In our silence the land speaksJohn Kim Faye
Musician, Author, Producer, Speaker
If I ever made my relationship with America “Facebook-official,” I’d be lying if I didn’t click “it’s complicated” in the drop-down menu.
As the child of a Korean mother and an Irish father who had me before it was even legal for them to be married in the state of Delaware (shout out Loving v. Virginia), I am the personification of the idea of a cultural mosaic, which, for many people, is the aspirational concept of what America should be.
But throughout my life and career as a mixed race professional musician, I have experienced forces that seek to keep folks divided, separated, segregated. There are times when it feels like America is stuck in a state of unrealized potential because we are constantly distracted, perpetually exhausted, resigning ourselves to tribalism, convenience culture, and idiocracy because we’re too damn tired of everything, everywhere, all at once.
I’ve sung the National Anthem many times in front of thousands of people and honestly, I think it’s time we swap it out with “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince. That’s much more relatable in 2026.
I recently walked past a shop that proudly displayed a banner in its window that says “America 250, 1776–2026” and my first thought was “birthday card or tombstone?” But ambivalent as I am, I can’t bring myself to give up on America. Hope is resistance.
I never say never ‘bout nothin’
The poetry is gonna return
Write it in a letter
To whom it may not ever concern
Patti Grimes
Executive Director at Freeman Arts Pavilion
America, to me, is a place of resilience, promise, and possibility. As a community leader in the arts and philanthropy, I see every day how deeply our country depends on people who care enough to show up, lend a hand, and lift others higher. That spirit of service is one of America’s greatest strengths.
What I value most about our country is the freedom to speak, create, gather, and work for change. Our Constitution protects those rights, and over time, people across generations have used them to push our nation closer to its ideals. That ability to raise a voice for good is part of what makes America so powerful.
I also believe America is at its best when opportunity is real for everyone. Education is one of the greatest gifts we can offer, because it opens doors, builds confidence, and gives people the tools to grow, contribute, and succeed. We are strongest when people are encouraged to learn, create, and reach their full potential, no matter where they begin. The arts help make that possible by building connections, opening minds, and reminding us of our shared humanity. Philanthropy helps turn that belief into action.
And then there is the land itself — vast, beautiful, and full of wonder. From state parks to national parks, America invites us to explore, reflect, and be grateful for the natural beauty that belongs to all of us.
At 250, America’s strength is renewed each time we choose to serve, include, and lift each other.
Raye Jones Avery
Arts Advocate and Curator
The nationwide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, poses an intricate conundrum.
For Delawareans, the semiquincentennial is not merely a commemoration. It is a reckoning — a mirror to face both our luminous inheritance, our gloomy shadows, and to decide whether democracy in this country will remain an aspiration or become a fact.
Some came seeking freedom. Some were dragged here in chains by men who demanded liberty for themselves. Others arrived in search of refuge. However it is we came, we are all here now. And the battle over voting rights, economic security, housing, food, education, and equal protection under the law is as old as the republic.
As a coal miner’s granddaughter, I honor the hands and backs that built this nation’s wealth and infrastructure, even as our ancestors were denied its full promise. Poet Langston Hughes named the truth with brilliance: “I, Too, Am America,” clothed in all her beauty and all her betrayal.
One day, Americans will look back on this 250th celebration, framed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s dismantling of voting rights protections, and feel the full weight of that disgrace. Until then, the charge is plain: VOTE, and tell the blues-soaked stories this country still tries to bury — stories of resilience, ingenuity, beauty, and the relentless struggle to be fully American.
Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman
Delaware State Senator, 2019-present
America is still young. Lately, we’ve been acting like it.
We are a teenager on the world stage: convinced of our own exceptionalism, allergic to accountability, and more prone to slamming doors than sitting together. Adolescence is turbulent. It is also an age when character is formed.
I have written before about our painful lack of truth and reconciliation: the unfinished work of facing what this nation has done alongside what it has dreamed. A country that cannot tell itself the truth cannot grow up.
Yet I am not without hope, because I know where true strength comes from. My late friend Wilmington City Councilwoman Rysheema Dixon used to say we get “strong from the ground up.” She said it while walking among neighbors who had long struggled without relief — a reality so many are coming to reckon with. She was right.
Worth does not trickle down. It’s not measured in views, accumulated in things, or hoarded by a wealthy few. It rises from block captains and kitchen tables, from neighbors who see both the sameness and the difference in one another, then unite with honesty, affection, and pride.
This is what our ancestors did at their best: persevered through hardship and believed in what was possible before there was proof. Now, the challenge is whether we — from the ground up — will reawaken to the possibilities and do our part to lay the foundation for the next 250 years of American life. I believe we can.
Sarah McBride
U.S. Representative from Delaware, 2025-present
America, to me, is defined by promise. And while that promise has yet to be fully realized, it is always worth believing in.
For 250 years, each generation has been asked the same question: Will we expand the meaning of freedom and equality, or restrict it? Will we widen the circle of belonging, or pull it tighter around fewer people?
The American story is about progress rather than perfection. Generation after generation, people have organized, marched, legislated, served, and sacrificed to bring this country closer to its founding promise of freedom and justice for all.
That progress was never inevitable. It required leaders who believed democracy was worth safeguarding and citizens who believed their fellow Americans were capable of change.
Today, cynicism comes easily. Faith in one another feels harder to sustain. And yet, our democracy cannot survive if we give up on one another — if we stop believing that we can change hearts and minds. My presence in Congress is proof that America is great because America can change.
For all our imperfections, that capacity for change is what makes this country worth believing in. As we mark 250 years of the American experiment, our history reminds us that tomorrow can be freer, fairer, and brighter than today. But we must hold on to hope. Because to lose hope is to abandon our duty: to our country, to the ideals of our founding, and to one another.
Nadjah Pennington
Nadjah Nicole, Singer/Songwriter
The Declaration of Independence makes it clear that King George III was a tyrant who thwarted the colonists’ efforts to become a free people with new ideas, government, and independent futures. The powerful language described how insufferable it was to be ruled by a man moved by self-interest, personal wealth, complete power, and no regard for the lives under his power.
One word that I found interesting was Despotism. Oddly enough, it felt familiar.
Despotism is a form of government where a single authority rules with absolute, unchecked power.
Now, 250 years later, the irony is loud.
On January 20, 2025, our current administration was inaugurated. During the campaign season, there were warnings of the kind of leader the American people may receive. He was described as an authoritarian, power-hungry, failed businessman, convicted felon, and subversive agitator.
Despite all of that and evidence to prove it, he was elected.
Initially, I reacquainted myself with the historical context and wording. But after reading through it a second time, I FELT their desperation and why they removed themselves from the King’s rule, needing to protect their unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
As a descendant of enslaved people, a black woman, wife, mother (including a mother of a child with special needs), business owner, artist, taxpayer, former college student, daughter of military personnel, sister of law enforcement, activist, United States citizen and more — trying to exercise my unalienable rights — I have one question:
Did we go back in time?
Mike Ramone
Delaware State Representative, 2008-2024
As America celebrates its 250th birthday, I find myself reflecting not only on what this nation has accomplished, but also on the values that made those accomplishments possible.
For 64 years, I have called Delaware home. I attended local schools (including the University of Delaware), built businesses, raised a family with my wife of 43 years, served sixteen years in the Delaware House of Representatives, and was blessed with opportunities that allowed me to grow beyond anything I imagined as a young man.
The journey was not always easy. Yet every setback reinforced a lesson that America has taught for generations: Success is not determined by where you begin, but by your willingness to work, persevere, and keep moving forward.
Today, however, I worry that we spend too much time focused on what divides us. We judge one another by differences in opinion, beliefs, and lifestyles rather than by the character we share. Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten a simple idea: live and let live.
America’s greatness has never come from everyone thinking alike. It comes from people having the freedom to pursue their own dreams while respecting the rights of others to do the same.
As we celebrate 250 years of this remarkable nation, my hope is that we rediscover the values of kindness, respect, personal responsibility, and optimism. If we focus more on what unites us than what separates us, the best chapters of America’s story are still ahead.
James Spadola
Wilmington City Councilperson-at-Large, 2021-present
In June 2025, I helped paint the crosswalk by Crimson Moon in Pride colors for a Pride Month ceremony. Caught off guard when asked to speak, my words jumped out regardless: There’s nothing more American than letting people be who they are.
A year later, I’d refine that further: There’s nothing more American than BEING who you are. America hasn’t always lived up to that ideal, but our spirit of individuality runs 250 years deep.
It started with colonists who refused to be told which church to attend or which king to obey. It ran through enslaved people who fought to free themselves and abolitionists who insisted no person should be owned. Suffragists who demanded access to the ballot, and every immigrant who arrived on our shores and became American on their own terms.
Underneath all of it runs a single current: It shouldn’t matter who you are, how you worship, who you love, or how you choose to affiliate. You and your decisions, so long as they aren’t affecting anyone else, belong to you alone. And, as we are left with the distance between that promise and the practice, we must continue the work of closing it.
