American Ideals Day - A Reflection

Last year, I started calling the Fourth of July American Ideals Day. If you missed my explanation (or the video), you can find it here. 

The short version is this: America isn't just a place. It's a set of ideals we've been trying—and often failing—to live up to for nearly 250 years.

Which makes this a good time to ask: are we getting any closer?

This past year gave me reasons to think we are.

In Akron, Ohio, 584 residents volunteered to spend fifty hours helping solve their city's housing crisis. A lottery selected 65 of them to serve in a Civic Assembly. They studied the issue, questioned experts, wrestled with difficult tradeoffs, and ultimately delivered The Plan of the People: nine recommendations built not by politicians, but by neighbors. I've watched a lot of government in my life. I've never seen anything quite like that.

Meanwhile, the Civic Gym kept growing. What began in 2021 on two campuses now reaches nearly 200 campuses across 42 states. Students are paired with someone who sees the world differently and are asked to have an honest conversation about immigration, guns, free speech, and other topics the rest of us largely avoid talking about (I mean talking about…not yelling about). 

The surprising part isn't that they disagree.

It's that they keep coming back for more. (Read the 2025 Impact Report for proof.)

I'm also proud that we finally built the Board of Directors I'd been putting off for far too long, expanded our team, and planted the seeds for new Civic Assemblies across Ohio and here in Chicago.

But none of those are the real reason I'm hopeful.

The reason I'm hopeful is that, over and over again this year, I watched ordinary people choose to stay in the conversation.

The founders wrote extraordinary ideals into our national DNA. They also fell painfully short of living up to them. Every generation since has inherited the same assignment: narrow the gap a little more, then hand the work to the next generation.

That's exactly what I saw in Akron. It's what I see every time a Civic Gym student stays on the Zoom call instead of retreating into certainty. Progress doesn't come from pretending we already agree. It comes from people willing to remain curious long enough to build something together.

That, for me, is what American Ideals Day is about.

Not celebrating perfection.

Celebrating the people still doing the work.

‍