FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Susan Healy (781) 432-9485, WWAC Administrative Director
Public Discussion Will Explore Ideas to Help Mark
America’s 250th Birthday in 2026 – Brattleboro Style!
Brattleboro, Vermont, 6 January 2025: Events are being planned all across the nation to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in 2026. This ‘semiquincentennial’ calls for more than just a bigger fireworks display; it offers an opportunity to creatively engage and express ideas about our country’s past and future and what it means to be an American in the world today.
How Vermont and specifically the Brattleboro-area ‘shows up’ and shares these ideas with the rest of the nation during this 250th anniversary will be the subject of a public meeting to be held on January 16, 2025 at the American Legion Hall, 32 Linden Street (just next to the Municipal Center), in Brattleboro, Vermont, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm with light refreshments served. Representatives from various town organizations, including Brooks Memorial Library, Vermont Independent Media (VIM), Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) and Brattleboro Union High School will share details on what’s happening so far statewide and nationally, and elicit public input. The forum will be taped and subsequently made available on BCTV.
Ideas can take any form: arts exhibits, music, theatrical productions, discussions, dance, puppetry, essay contests – perhaps a ‘create a new national anthem’ challenge – the possibilities are many. For instance, WWAC, Brooks Library, VIM and others, in partnership with the Vermont Humanities Council, have been working with ‘Constitution Wrangler’ Meg Mott PhD on a series of ‘Town Halls’ examining important and controversial topics leading up to 2026 as well as other events as part of a collaboration entitled “America 250: Examining American Identity and Leadership in a Changing World.”
“As the country has become increasingly divided, we look forward to coming together with all of our neighbors,” said Starr LaTronica, Executive Director of Brooks Memorial Library. “The semiquincentennial gives us an opportunity to plan activities that celebrate our differences and acknowledge what we have in common.”
The partnership has joined America 250, the national organizing body whose website says its mission is “to provide opportunities for all Americans to pause and reflect on our nation’s past and present, honor the contributions of all Americans, and look to the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond.”
The state of Vermont also has a ‘Vermont 250 Commission’ with its own website and calendar of events. It has created a 10 minute YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd3FEEwwT8I) that asks, among other things: ‘How does the change-making and revolutionary spirit of the Revolution travel through us in this century? The video reminds us too that Vermont was its own country from 1777 to 1791.
Visit WWAC’s website to learn more about upcoming America 250 Town Hall programming and regular events.
For 64 years, Windham World Affairs Council has built community engagement, dialogue, and resilience by helping people understand complicated issues that manifest globally and locally. Through ongoing programs such as salons, youth and teacher support, and a monthly speaker series led by global experts, we build intergenerational and cross-cultural social connections to create a more inclusive and engaged community. An independent, nonpartisan organization with an all-volunteer board and a growing dues-paying membership, it presents all events free to the public and is a chapter of the national World Affairs Councils of America.
request for More info on the "new national anthem" notion
Can you provide an external link to such a discussion?
Would such an anthem require lyrics? Re-use the lyrics?