America and Kansas can still be united. We the people can make it happen | Opinion

History is a tricky thing. Like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. Like a photograph, it captures only part of the scene. Like any story, it is open to interpretation.

I thought about this a lot while celebrating our country’s 250th anniversary. What makes it so difficult to say, “This is the real America,” is that America is not a monolith, but rather what Fredrick Douglass described as a “composite nation,” made up of many different people, traditions, and stories woven into one country.

The history of America began with colonialism. But the story of America was born from revolution, from we the people standing up to unjust power.

The history of America includes the story of slavery, but it also includes the story of those who fought to end it, from John Brown and his courageous stand at Harpers Ferry to the countless abolitionists who refused to accept injustice.

The history of America includes the robber barons, but it also includes the stories of the heroic men and women of the labor movement who fought, and at times gave their lives, to secure a better life for themselves and for future generations.

The history of America includes Jim Crow laws and decades of discrimination, but it also includes the story of the civil rights movement and the millions of Americans from every walk of life who stood together to say, “Enough is enough.” They demanded that America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.

The history of America includes unequal access and discrimination against Americans with disabilities. But it also includes the story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, the 8-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who, alongside many other brave activists, crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

As the little girl struggled up the steps, she shouted, “I’ll take all night if I have to!” If that isn’t the spirit of America, I don’t know what is.

Data centers, foreign influence

But in 250 years, what might historians say of us? What will be the story of the moment we are in?

Will it be a story of towns polluted by data centers and tech oligarchs turning America into a subscription nation, a neo-feudalism in which we only rent and never own?

Will it be the story of a country that broke apart because we let politicians, pundits, podcasters and foreign influence divide us against ourselves?

Or, will it be the story of a people that rose to the moment, put aside their differences and united in the fight to put power back in the hands of the people?

America is not a monolith. It is the story of each and every one of us. However, if there is a through line, a plot or a plan guided by our creator it is this: The story of America is the story of we the people struggling to make real the values of the Declaration of Independence and the mission of the Constitution. It is a struggle by we the people to form a more perfect union. It is a struggle to fulfill the promise of America.

Civil rights advocates from the Rev. Theodore Parker to Maya Angelou have said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe this to be true, but not quite complete. The arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends toward justice, but only if we the people take action to make it.

America is at a crossroads. We can follow our current path and allow the creation of economic powers that are a new nobility in all but name. We can be a house divided against itself. We can let the fabric of the nation be torn asunder.

Or we can choose each other, our communities and our country. We can say enough is enough. We can heal our country, but only if we do it together.

America is not a monolith, but America can be united. If we are going to make it another 250 years, we must take our country back for the people.

If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

Anne Parelkar is an immigration attorney, Kansas mother and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

This story was originally published July 12, 2026 at 5:01 AM with the headline "America and Kansas can still be united. We the people can make it happen | Opinion."