(gentle percussive music) - The Declaration has been showing up in the news lately in a more robust way than I think in years.

The times when Americans are searching for what they're about, for what this country means, the Declaration is always there.

- Has it lived up to its expectations, and has it lived up to its promise?

I think almost everyone agrees we're not there yet.

- How do we make sure that our government is living up to those promises, especially considering that we are that government?

This is a democracy.

- It's this constant expansion of who gets to be a part of this group of people who are created equal and who are endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

(gentle percussive music) (relaxed jazz music) (upbeat rock music) (relaxed string music) (gentle orchestral music) - The question of who does the Declaration of Independence belong to really extends far beyond the nation state and the boundaries of what today we call the U.S., and that is something that is very important as we think about the place that immigrants have in our nation today and the broader impact abroad.

- So the question that we have to ask is why are there people who want to keep people out?

- This is no United States without immigration.

Ellis Island was operational from 1892 to 1954, and we do see in that era roughly 12 million immigrants entering the United States through that site, but it's also an era bookmarked by restriction, you have the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was essentially a blanket ban on immigration from China that would be in effect to a certain extent for nearly 100 years, right?

And then, on the other side of that, you have 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act, which is the most restrictive immigration law in U.S.

history, it applies really strict quotas, these quotas were race-based, right?

You see quotas that are disproportionately privileging Northern and Western Europe, in the case of a country like Italy, Northern Italy gets a larger quota than Southern Italy.

(gentle piano music) - Many people like me are living in fear that there are now forces that have gained forces, like, you know, who want to see a Christian nationalist perspective dominate.

We need to come together and we need to build a better future for everybody involved, and we can address some of the insecurities that give rise to authoritarianism, give rise to people trying to exclude others from this broader canopy.

- Everyone when they enter this country comes in with that expectation that they'll be able to find safety, be able to find community, as we are a melting pot, and so, there may be people that are like them already here.

(gentle orchestral music) - Who is American?

Who is patriotic?

Who gets to label?

Who gets to define?

We like to brand anyone who disagrees with us as un-American, and I think that just can't stand anymore.

We as part of the LGBT community, we went through the whole don't ask, don't tell thing in the 1990s, and now trans people, again, out of nowhere, are banned from serving in the military.

- The Declaration of Independence gives people, particularly collectively, tools for talking about rights, for talking about liberty, for talking about what government can and cannot do to them, that vocabulary, I think, is probably the most important element of the text for us today.

(gentle piano music) - In working with young people today and teaching American history today, students I think are less interested in sort of the dynamics of how the Declaration was written and why it was written as opposed to how it's been applied or misapplied throughout American history.

You can use the Declaration of Independence to make any sort of different argument that you want, some of those arguments, just like George Wallace in the 1960s, might revolve around ending some people's freedoms or civil rights based on the idea that their freedoms or civil rights might infringe upon your own.

- I think we should recognize that this experiment in America is still sort of worthwhile.

The very subjects that it subjugated, the very individuals that it violated still believe in its potential, and to continue to not give up and make it better.

- The American dream, it is something that is inherently really beautiful and still very true, but sometimes, it seems as though it's a bit harder, especially now.

- To make a nation means you've got to have a vision, and the vision is of a multicultural, pluralistic society moving toward a more perfect union.

- I think it would be a terrible mistake to put it down and relegate it to the past, or to imagine it some as something that lives only on wrinkled parchment.

We need to make it ours.

- Even if you may not feel a direct personal connection to the Declaration, you can feel a connection to the stories of its influence over time.

You can see yourself in the people who have fought for their rights, the people who have protested, the people who have written their own declarations, the people who have used the words of the Declaration to fight for a better future.

(relaxed funk music) - I hope that the anniversary in 2026 will help us refresh our memory, to remind ourselves of these principles, to remind ourselves how we all share these common principles, and that we should continue to pursue them together as a nation.

- We want to have people see themselves as part of a chain that goes back to the 18th century.

That generation expressed some really powerful ideas and passed that on to us, we wanted to explore that story for America's 250th I think as a way for us to feel a kind of emotional connection to that founding generation that hopefully connects with our lives today.

(relaxed funk music) (relaxed string music) (relaxed string music continues) (relaxed string music continues)