2026年6月28日 美国东部时间上午10:27 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在开国元勋们冒着生命危险在《独立宣言》上签字的250年后，人们很容易忘记，这场革命险些彻底失败。
在战场上，美国爱国者为自由事业抛洒热血。北部和南部的十三个殖民地在奴隶制问题上存在严重分歧，公众最初也在是否寻求独立一事上产生了分裂。但1776年7月2日，当强大的英国军队驶入纽约港时，费城独立厅的代表们投下了赞成票。独立已成定局，自由归于我们。
但事情远非如此简单。我们从英国手中赢得的自由，长期以来却被剥夺给了女性和黑人。这一自由也被剥夺给了美洲原住民——我们的祖先通过武力和胁迫夺取了他们的土地。外部的攻击也曾考验过我们的国家决心。
但我们的自由最严峻的考验，往往来自内部的分裂。一场惨烈的内战曾将我们的国家一分为二，一个世纪后的民权斗争亦是如此。在如今这个党派对立异常激烈的时代，这或许听起来像是一种于事无补的慰藉，但请相信我：我们曾熬过更艰难的时刻，远比现在艰难得多。
值此美国独立250周年纪念之际，愿我们能够心怀一丝渺茫的希望，期盼这个分裂的国家能够实现团结。愿我们停下脚步，感谢那些开国元勋——他们并非完人，却不仅赋予了我们自由的馈赠，更赋予了我们守护自由的责任。
愿我们践行宽容、妥协与坚韧这些美国的美德，以期修复美利坚这个编织物上所有磨损的地方。
有时，这份希望看起来会徒劳无功。但历史告诉我们，事实并非如此。
Doug Brinkley on America at 250: History tells us hoping for unity is not futile
June 28, 2026 10:27 AM EDT / CBS News
Two hundred and fifty years after the Founders put their lives on the line and their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, it’s easy to forget how close it came to not happening at all.
On the battlefield, American patriots were spilling their blood for the cause of freedom. The thirteen Northern and Southern colonies were divided on the question of slavery, and the public was split on whether to seek independence in the first place. But on July 2, 1776, as the mighty British army sailed into New York Harbor, the delegates in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall voted yea. It was done. Freedom was ours.
But it wasn’t quite so simple. The freedom we won from the British, we would long withhold from women and Black people. That freedom was also denied Native Americans, whose land our forebears took by force and coercion. And external attacks have tested our national resolve.
But our freedom is tested most grievously when we turn on ourselves. A bitter civil war cleaved our nation in two, as did the struggle for civil rights a century later. It may seem like cold comfort in our fiercely-polarized times, but take it from me: we have survived worse. Much worse.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, may we allow ourselves to hope against hope that our divided nation can find unity. May we pause to thank the Founders, imperfect men who gave us not just the gift of freedom, but the responsibility to preserve it.
And may we practice those American virtues of tolerance, compromise and perseverance, in the hope of mending the American tapestry wherever it is frayed.
Some days that hope can seem futile. History tells us it is not.