Looking Toward America's 250th Birthday

Gleaves Whitney - Executive Director at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation joins us to discuss A250 - a series of events over the next year to celebrate America's 250th Birthday. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And throw some numbers at you. Just a couple of
weeks ago, downtown Grand Rapids the official outdoors celebration of
one hundred and seventy five years the city. But on Friday,
as America celebrates its Independent Day Independence Day, it kicks
off a year long celebration that includes Grand Rapids. This
is West Michigan's Morning News. Stee Kelly and Brett Pikita,

(00:22):
the executive director of the Jerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
and now a member of the Grand Rapids A two
point fifty steering committee, leaves Whitney is back with us.
Thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Oh thank you. Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
America turns two hundred and fifty years old. And I
saw your name on this thing and knew that there
were already a lot of things planned. If you're just
learning that America is two hundred and fifty years old,
you'll be thrilled to know that there's a bunch of
stuff going on in the next year.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Tell us more well, it's really a community wide effort.
At the top of the steering committee, Doug de Vos
and Marylyn Grand to do a great job of corralling
all the different communities within West Michigan and making sure
that our celebration of the two hundred and fifty if
it is not just an event, it's not just a
Fourth of July fireworks parade, but it's also a series

(01:14):
of events of activities involving these communities. We've got to
draw in our communities to celebrate, commemorate, you know, investigate,
debate our rich history. I mean, if we've got to
renew the sense of purpose of being an American and
a civic involvement that we have the awesome responsibility and
opportunity to participate in. So we've got, for example, we've

(01:35):
got the symbiotic relationship going between the one hundred and
seventy fifth anniversary of the City of Grand Rapids and
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America, as you
just mentioned, and we're more than twenty Grand Rapids businesses
are participating in the US Chamber of Commerce Civics Academy.
That's going to give young people and an opportunity to

(01:57):
learn more about the United States and astounding Prince given
cultural awareness all the different cultures that make up this
tapestry of this great country. And then we have an
Athletics Committee that's we're going to engage collegiate and high
school and professional sports bring people together. But you know,
when you're in a stadium, you're not looking at people's color,
you're not looking at their gender. You're all cheering. You know,

(02:20):
you're all Americans, You're all united. Then we've got a
new Americans Subcommittee, which I'm really excited about because we
not only want to engage our immigrant populations through celebrations
and festivals and naturalization ceremonies, but also actually increase immigrant
participation in all of our grand rapids a two point
fifty planning processes and programs. Then we've got a Youth

(02:43):
Subcommittee seeking ways to create a culture where youth care
about civics, engaging partners like we the People, and Scouting
America Girl Scouts of America Junior to See and gosh,
it just goes on and on. We have all these
different committees. Again that the city is engaged, our leaders
are engaged, and we are pumped up to celebrate this country.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
You know, Gleaves, There's nothing more powerful, I think than
perspective with a capital P. And I say that because
I remember as a kid and I would have only
been I think five years old, nineteen seventy six, Big
my parents were traveling on the East Coast and we
were with them. My mom was a history teacher. And
I can't remember if it was either Washington, DC or

(03:29):
Philadelphia because we hit a bunch of stuff that my
mom wanted to take in. But we were at a
two hundred year by centennial for that, and I'll never
forget it stuck with me and I just thought that
was so cool. And now we're talking about this today,
how much things have changed from nineteen seventy six to
now twenty and twenty six.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
But you know, if I may, there's a quotation from
President Ford who gave so talk about the East Coast
and our bi centennial celebration in nineteen seventy six. President
Ford's there in Philadelphia, and he said that our struggle
for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is never
truly won. He admonished us. He said, each generation of Americans,

(04:11):
and really all humanity, has to continue to strive to
achieve these aspirations. Anew, he said, I love this line.
Liberty is a living flame to be fed, not dead
ashes to be revered.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And speaking of which, as I look at the website.
GRA two fifty dot com will put the link in
the podcast section as we look down in the city
of Grand Rapids, that triangular building, that arrowhead. The Ford
Presidential Museum will play host to some events.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Too, and soon, oh, we're going to We are so pumped.
All of our programming over the next year and over
the next eighteen months actually will be you know, the
principles of the two hundred and fiftieth Past President and
future just what you were referring to. We're not just
looking backward. We have to recall what happened in seventeen
seventy six and that whole actually the whole founding from
about seventeen seventy five when the war breaks out against

(05:00):
the British, all the way to about seventeen ninety one
ninety two when the Bill of Rights are all ratified.
It's a process and we want to make sure we
capture that process. So, for example, on July thirty first,
at the museum, we're going to be the foundation, the JERALDR.
Ford Presidential Foundation, the National Constitution Center are joining forces

(05:23):
to train teachers and have programs so that people can
put all this perspective into a useful classroom situation, just
as you suggested. We've got other events that are coming
up to that are really exciting. On September second, we
have the award winning Pulser Prize winning Rick Atkinson coming in.
He's going to be talking about two greatest generations at

(05:44):
the JW. Marriott at noon on September second. He's going
to be talking about the Founding Generation and compare it
to the World War II generation, the Silent generation and
all that they achieve. So you have that golden thread
of continuity, and we're going to invite the audience, what
can our generations do they're living today to learn from

(06:05):
those greatest generations and go and do likewise and make
this country even better than it is.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
You'll be hearing a lot about it in the next year.
The executive director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation,
member of the Grand Rapids A two point fifty steering Committee,
Gleaves Whitney. Always great stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Thank you, hey, Thanks Steve Brett, really appreciate you.