July is a month to celebrate the nation’s founding and a time also to contemplate the history of America — both the good and the bad, and, yes, there has been plenty of both.

That’s why I was intrigued when a reader kept leaving me messages about an article she had discovered in an 1845 newspaper in The Berkshire Courier.

Dorothy Brush, who lives in Uncasville, finally convinced me to look at the newspaper in her home in the Hillcrest community, which I visited last month, not long before the Fourth of July.

The article was one apparently republished by the Courier and other newspapers once a year near the anniversary of the country’s founding, which at that point had not crossed the century mark.

Now, as we near the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026, the words of Declaration of Independence signer John Adams, also the second president of the United States, rings as true as when it was first penned on July 5, 1776:

“The Fourth of July, 1776, will be a memorable epoch in the history of America.” he wrote in part. “It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever....

“I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States; yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of Light and Glory — I can see that the end is worth more than all the means, and that posterity will triumph....”

As the Courier opined at the time, “It is a true and genuine specimen of the spirit which animated our fathers, and should be cherished by their sons....”

Dorothy also hoped it would spark a conversation about how we should all just try to get along; that our differences are not nearly as important as what we all have in common.

So in the spirit of John Adams and Dorothy Brush, I ask our readers to write short essays on what it means to you “to be an American” and what it will take for us all to get back on the same page and celebrate the benefits of American life. Let’s keep politics out of it and think about the broader issues, such as opportunity, freedom, fairness, equality and assimilation.

We CAN get along if we are still talking and writing and listening respectfully. Our democracy depends on it.

Lee Howard is The Day’s community editor, responsible for nine weekly newspapers. Send “To Be An American” essays to times@theday.com.