America’s Story Is Not a Fairy Tale

America is told it must celebrate only its “exceptionalism.” At least, that’s the line from the current regime. In their version, exceptionalism admits to nothing but a glorious past and an even more glorious future. The model is ancient: kings who claimed to never have experienced defeat boasted of their triumphs in stone memorials, proclaiming empires eternal. Their names are no longer remembered except by scholars and history buffs. It was all vanity, a chasing after the wind.

America’s history is exceptional for a very different reason. It is rooted in principles of freedom, equality, and representative democracy. Against tremendous challenges, those principles have endured. They have inspired a slow, uneven, but relentless march toward realization for all people, regardless of station or circumstance. To erase that history and replace it with a legendary fairytale would be a betrayal—a disservice to the nation and to all it has endured.

Nowhere is this tension clearer than Virginia’s  Historic Triangle. It is a living museum of the American story. It begins with the land’s first peoples, their cultures, their suffering, their resilience, and their contributions to the country that followed. It includes the waves of British immigrants who sought a better life, taking the land that lay before them by conquest. It includes the importation of African slaves, whose labor enriched some while condemning others to the status of mere property.

We often tell this story only in terms of wars—Revolutionary, 1812, Civil, and two World Wars—that shaped the character of the region. But the truth runs deeper. Here the seeds of human rights were planted. At first they were reserved for free white men. But the ground was nourished in sweat and blood, and the seeds took root. Over time, they grew into rights that stretch toward all people. It is a story of struggle to be honored not hidden.

That fuller, more honest story—told without embarrassment—is the real treasure of the Historic Triangle. It has taken centuries, and only now is it bearing its ripe fruit. To strip away its authenticity, to reduce it to a mythical tale of what never was, would not honor America. It would humiliate it.

The men and women who bear the authority for keeping this living museum alive, dedicated to learning evermore, conserving its artifacts, and telling its never ending story are likely to be pressured into retreat. They should not be less standing on their own. The entire community must come to their defense with courage and singleness of mind.