(The Center Square) – Planners of Washington state's participation in a national celebration of the 250th anniversary of America's founding want to put heavy emphasis on some of the country's darker history, including underrepresented voices.
Members of Washington's America250 committee met to get an update on plans for the semiquincentennial celebration of the founding of the country to take place July 4, 2026, commemorating and celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Each U.S. state and territory is expected to create or designate an official entity to organize their state’s planning and programming for the anniversary.
This past legislative session, Washington lawmakers established a committee via Senate Bill 5756 , to coordinate and provide guidance for Washington’s official observance.
On July 11, Washington’s America250 committee held a virtual meeting to get an update on planning, but the committee chair, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck seemed entirely displeased with the direction of the planning so far.
Jennifer Kilmer, executive director of the Washington State Historical Society, showed a PowerPoint of objectives and told committee members how much of the plans are focused on education efforts around tribal sovereignty and history and recognition of historically marginalized communities.
“We are looking at a variety of educational investments including a teacher institute as well as a mobile museum with potential free admission for field trips,” Kilmer said.
“Budget proposals are due at the end of August for state agencies, so a number of us are still working through the details on these things,” she continued.
Heck was not pleased.
“I’m disappointed, and I’m disappointed in a couple regards," he said. “I’m disappointed that there’s no specific reference and precious attention to commemorating the founding of the republic."
He said the point of America250 is to "commemorate the founding of our republic. And, I don’t see anything in here that deals with that.”
Heck acknowledged sensitivities around the subject.
"I want to be real transparent that there are lots of people, large groups of people that have good reason not to celebrate the founding of the Republic, and those issues ought to be dealt with, and they are in here,” said Heck. “But I’m also disappointed that there’s not even a hint of a celebration.”
Kilmer responded by noting other parts of the presentation may include potential celebrations. She said her presentation was not indicative of plans as a whole.
“I think some of those things are maybe a little obscured in my presentation,” she said.
“I think they are more than a little obscured,” Heck retorted. “As on old guy, I remember the bicentennial, and I remember it for a couple of reasons. One being it didn’t deal with all the difficult parts of our journey at all, and secondly, I remember we didn’t have a problem celebrating and commemorating."
Rep. Kristine Reeves, D-Federal Way, also a member of the committee, then added, “Not everybody is exactly excited about celebrating America.”
Reeves told Heck it’s a difficult balance, but in terms of getting the Legislature to fund long-term projects and education related to America250, she wants the harms of the past to be front and center.
“Just making sure that we are taking that delicate balance between celebrating our country and recognizing that that also meant manifest destiny, that also meant slavery, that also meant a lot of other things are critical to the heritage and history of that founding,” Reeves said. “And the impacts that it had long term.”
“Four the fourth time, I agree,” said Heck, referring to the fact he had repeatedly stated he understood the need to reflect the harms of the past. “But your word was balance, and I don’t see balance here.”
The next scheduled meeting is Thursday, Oct. 10, though the committee will meet in August to finalized budget proposals, which have yet to be made public.
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