Genesee Township, MI — On Saturday afternoon, Dale K. Weighill, Chairman of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners, gave remarks at the America 250 Celebration that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Crossroads Village.

The twin celebrations took place during the annual Genesee County Day, with thousands in attendance at Crossroads for a day honoring our community, the history of one of our region’s most iconic landmarks, and the national Sesquicentennial.

Here are the Chairman’s remarks:

Good afternoon.

My very sincere thanks and gratitude — on behalf of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners — to Lt. Governor John Cherry and Rep. Charles Mueller for helping to guide the work that is culminating here today.

Thank you also to the members of Genesee County/America 250 Commission for your steadfast commitment to celebrating both our country and our County’s place in its history.

Lastly, my gratitude and congratulations to the Board and staff of the Genesee County Parks for your good work and stewardship of Crossroads Village for fifty amazing years now.

Today we honor the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence and the 50th anniversary of Crossroads Village

It is no secret we live in politically divided and fraught times

If you know American history, this is has almost always been the case.

We are a rambunctious democracy of millions of people with millions of opinions, some strongly held and frequently in opposition to each other.

We started in a Revolution, engaged in a great Civil War, and have fought, at times bloodily and bitterly, over the rights of people who have been — as a matter of cultural and legal practice — excluded from the Founders’ original promise.

I refer, of course, to the great debates, conflicts, and treatment over two and a half centuries of indigenous people, Africans brought to our shores as slaves and their descendants, women, religious minorities, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, and others.

In the March on Washington in August 1963, Dr. King famously referred to the promises of the Declaration as a “promissory note” to future generations that needed to be cashed. He further stated that he refused to believe that the “bank of justice” was bereft of funds to pay the inheritance of the Declaration signed by the Founders in 1776.

And today, in the first quarter of the 21st Century, we are split along increasingly polarized political lines.

But, what about that which binds us together and forms the basis upon which we live together — hopefully with some semblance of civility and peace — in our shared democracy?

I am referring to the essential, groundbreaking, and revolutionary meaning of the Declaration of Independence, the document the anniversary of which we are here in celebration of today.

That idea that all people — everywhere — have the natural and god given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And that self government is instituted to protect these rights.

Before the Civil War and before he was President, Abraham Lincoln wrote and spoke about the Declaration of Independence as THE most important document of the Founding era, more important than even the Constitution.

Lincoln believed the idea that ALL people — in America and elsewhere — had certain fundamental and indeed unalienable rights was the magical notion that would propel our progress.

He debated this very question with Stephen Douglass and others, asserting that people held in bondage, mostly in the American South, had the same inalienable rights as white free men did.

And, Abigail Adams, the wife of future President John Adams, encouraged him to “not forget the ladies” as he left Massachusetts to create a new nation.

The idea of natural rights was a very new one in 1776, with Europe and parts of the world dominated by absolute monarchies and the divine right of kings. There was no such thing as individual human rights.

So, in our own difficult and fractious era, not unlike much of the rest of our history, may we look to, celebrate, and venerate our inheritance from the Founders when they were at their most articulate and aspirational.

May we still be animated by that which has resulted in more and more people being included in the promise that is America. May the words of Jefferson and the other founders — imperfect human beings who at times violated their own written words — move us forward now, both at home and in our relations abroad.

For, in the end, we are here and have to share this county, this country, and this planet with those who disagree at times with us. It is the common ground of human rights and a commitment to self-government — including free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power — that I hope still binds us.

Thank you. And, happy birthday, America