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Welcome to 2025.

Next year, the nation will celebrate 250 years since the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the 13 colonies鈥� separation from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The following year, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation as the United States of America took form. It took until 1781 for all the states to ratify. But the 鈥淟eague of Friendship鈥� held the former colonies together through the war with Britain until Maryland ratified it a few short months before the defeat of General Cornwallis at Yorktown. It took two more years for the Treaty of Paris to be signed.

The Articles of Confederation was a disaster as a governing document as it gave unfettered power to each state. As the National Archives states in The Articles of Confederation, 鈥淐ongress [each state had one vote] was attempting to function with a depleted treasury; and paper money was flooding the country, creating extraordinary inflation.. The states were on the brink of economic disaster; and the central government had little power to settle quarrels between states. Disputes over territory, war pensions, taxation, and trade threatened to tear the country apart.鈥�

Still, the Constitutional Convention did not meet until 1787 to revise the Articles. Instead, they decided to redesign, and after three hot summer months and intense debate, the four-page Constitution emerged and was signed on Sept. 17, 1787.

Twenty-three years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the first federal Congress convened on March 4, 1789; George Washington, elected by nine state legislatures and popular votes in the remaining states, took office on April 30, 1789.

The Founding Fathers were educated men who knew more of the world than their farms, plantations, and commercial endeavors. They crafted a living document that has, thus far, withstood the test of time. Even in my short lifetime, I have seen Jim Crow abolished with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, even as my uncle, Democratic State Senator John D Long, had the Confederate Battle flag hoisted to the top of the South Carolina State House where it flew until then-Governor Nikki Haley, to her credit, had it taken down in 2015. When I was growing up, I was told by relatives in South Carolina that my uncle was a friend of the working man. Even with a child鈥檚 eyes, I could see the hypocrisy. So, I am glad I grew up when I did. When I could see and participate in the slow, sometimes stumbling, but measurable progress of the peoples 鈥� and Armed Forces 鈥� of the United States of America.

As I watched the moving state funeral for former President James Earl Carter and listened to a haunting rendition of 鈥淚magine鈥� by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, I reflected on my life. I often advise having no regrets, but I regret that I am not young again so I can more fully engage in this next chapter of our country. No matter your temporal political leanings, make no mistake: If we want to hold onto our constitutional federal republic, it is again time for serious debate on how to do so.