Otis History — As We Approach Our 250th Anniversary: History’s Lessons for Contemporary America
By Peter Cameron
September 2025
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our country’s great democratic experiment, I thought we should examine how history has factored in our country’s past decisions and how it could influence our future outcomes.
Recently, there has been major upheaval in our federal government. Some cheer the changes, others condemn them, and quite a few have had their lives disrupted by them. For the rest of us, they spark nervous uncertainty. Regardless of where each of us stands on today’s political decisions, they are tomorrow’s history. This is not the first time in our history we have been nervous about government upheaval. The initial events in our country’s history were a debate for, or against, independence from Mother England. If those tumultuous events didn’t make people nervous, nothing could.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, this past April, the “shots heard round the world,” were fired at Lexington and Concord. That year, 1775, despite the violence, there were colonists and colonial leaders who still believed in, and openly worked at, reconciliation with England. Still others wanted independence. There were protests, there were pamphlets dissecting both sides of the issue, there was violent debate between the two sides, there was uncertainty. There was economic doubt, and many did not know how they might survive if a revolt against England broke out. A clear decision favoring independence wouldn’t happen for another year.
In this hour of upheaval, there was a groundswell of support for the principals of the Enlightenment movement. This movement, that began some hundred years prior, originated with the denial of human rights by the monarchies in Europe. It espoused that every man was given and guaranteed, by God, certain inalienable rights including life, liberty, and property. Rebellious colonists and those in the Continental Congress adopted this historical philosophy as the path forward. Embracing this history motivated the colonists to overcome the greatest army in the world, and achieve, for the first time in modern history, independence from a monarchy.
The recent government upheaval in Washington has caused a lot of insecurity. It is occurring because of the political viewpoint of our currently elected officials, considered right wing or conservative. Our political system is based on the pendulum theory. This theory states that when those in power move too far in one direction on the political spectrum, the pendulum will eventually swing in the opposite direction to balance itself, as it tends to settle towards the middle of that spectrum. Our past political history has borne that theory out, time and again. If in the future, unwritten history discards this theory, then a new history will be written, and we may have a reason for uncertainty and concern. Regardless, we have faced uncertainty before and triumphed, as evidenced at the birth of the republic we call the United States of America.
The moment after something happens it becomes history. We study those moments and hopefully learn from them. They are the illumination of our path forward. Patrick Henry, celebrated colonial patriot from Virginia, said, “I have one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I have no way of judging the future but by the past.” Our history is full of choices made, good and bad, but the knowledge gained from those decisions is our legacy. If we foolishly forget our history, it will blind us moving forward. We have, time and again, learned from our past experiences and landed on our feet.
Happy 250th Birthday America.
