Stories of America and Ourselves

“HISTORY IS NOT THE PAST. It is stories we tell about the past.” Those words were written by the late philosopher and feminist Grace Lee Boggs.¹ This year’s celebration of our nation’s 250^th birthday encourages special attention to the stories we tell about America’s history. One story of America now being heavily promulgated by the federal government should be of concern to all who value learning from sources striving to present information in a nonpartisan, evenhanded manner. This concerning version of U.S. history received impetus from the 2025 Presidential Executive Order 14190 titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling,” which explicitly states its intent “to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation.”

Perhaps the most prominent organization seeking to promote that view of our national history is the America 250 Civics Education Coalition. Its governmental component, overseen by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, solely advocates the current administration’s perspective of America’s past. Further, its many private sponsors share strongly conservative ideologies. Those sponsors include Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, The Claremont Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Moms for Liberty, and PragerU.³ In other words, the Coalition aims to appropriate the concept of patriotism to conform with the ideological agenda of its governmental and private sponsors.

Their story of America is an excessively sanitized one. It is a story that purposefully emphasizes accomplishments supporting claims of American exceptionalism. At the same time, it de-emphasizes attention to events where America failed to meet its aspirations, apparently fearful of inducing feelings of shame for factually wrongful actions of our predecessors.

The America 250 Civics Education Coalition celebrates a pruned, hollowed-out story of American history by stripping away candid acknowledgment of past mistakes. While the Coalition may herald it as meeting their definition of a patriotically-oriented history, it fails as a reality-oriented historical record.

Frankly, their so-called patriotic history of America is also a boring one. It makes for comparison to the way biologist David George Haskell in his book “The Forest Unseen” writes about the ecological poverty of tree farms planted in furtherance of pulp industry monetary interests.⁴ In that beautifully written 2012 Pulitzer Prize-nominated work, Haskell, among abundant other ecological observations, deplores the monoculture of fast-growing, fertilizer-juiced tree farms as mere shadows of natural forests. After all, who would want to trek through a tree forest and perhaps envision excitedly calling out to hiking buds, “Oh wow! Look up ahead, more pine trees!” Tree farms don’t stir feelings of awe in nature or kindle poetic inspiration.

Like a natural forest, more objective, truly nonpartisan American histories are far more rich, complex and multifaceted than the story the conservative right seeks to foist on the public during this special year of celebration. Educational programs selectively limited to a litany of claims touting American exceptionalism make for tedious learning. When endorsed by the federal government, Americans deserve access to a national history that not only cites our country’s many noteworthy accomplishments but also allows the learner to engage with where we have fallen short and can do better.

In our own way, we are all historians. We carry around with us stories we tell about ourselves. One way we construct personal stories is through written resumes. With few exceptions (e.g., George Santos comes to mind), most people compose such documents in an honest manner. Yet, resumes are carefully honed to present personal history in a manner that highlights positive life details and minimizes ones that might be concerning to potential employers. The America 250 Civics Coalition might be thought of as an effort to describe America in the style of an overly embellished national resume.

Another way we tell stories about ourselves is when speaking with others. Of course, the way we do so is situationally dependent. The words and tone used in describing past experiences are likely to sound quite different when meeting in-laws for the first time compared to when drinking late at night with long term, trusted friends.

Our most private personal stories are reserved for the internal dialogue that acts to support how we most honestly see ourselves. During my past working career as a clinical psychologist, I was privileged to listen to many closely held private stories. They were told by clients permitting themselves to do so understanding the confidential context of psychotherapy. Their stories often revealed emotionally painful inner narratives disclosed in the hope of relieving suffering or realizing growth.

The private narratives of narcissists are thought to reflect effort at maintaining reality-denying scaffolds of grandiosity. In contrast, persons suffering from, for example, severe anxiety or depression frequently subject themselves to inner narratives of reality-distorting private self-criticism. Those fortunate to possess well-regulated emotional adjustment seem best able to nurture factually based, realistic personal storytelling. Doing so allows them to engage in productive self-examination and facilitates movement toward their fullest human potential.

Most readers will be familiar with the movie “Project Hail Mary,” one of this year’s most popular films. The movie is based on the sci-fi novel of the same name by Andy Weir. In the novel, the author uses the first person point of view, which permits the reader direct access to the inner narration of the protagonist, a scientist named Ryland Grace. For those who have not yet read the book or seen the movie, Grace’s personal storytelling can be described without spoiling plot details.

Drawn into an extraordinary situation, Grace figuratively, and then quite literally, runs away from undertaking a heroic pursuit that would necessarily entail his death. The stakes involved in that decision could not be higher. He chooses to run away from the potential not only to save the entire human species, but likely all other life on earth. Although at first he attempts to rationalize his decision, he eventually comes to recognize, “I’m a terrified man … I’m a coward.”⁵

As the novel progresses, Grace is presented with yet another situation demanding self-sacrifice. This time, despite realizing it will cost his own life, he is unhesitant in his efforts to save that of another, whom it would be an understatement to describe as an unexpected friend. By doing so, Grace’s personal story necessarily becomes more complex and at the same time more interesting.

So, was Ryland Grace a coward or a hero? Was he good or was he bad? Like all talented novelists, the author defers that opinion to the reader. Perhaps Grace might most accurately be characterized as exemplifying the reality that a person can be both praiseworthy and blameworthy.

This commentary began with the words of a philosopher. It seems appropriate to conclude with the words of another. Friedrich Nietzsche titled one of his books, “Human, All Too Human.”⁶ Those words certainly apply to us as individuals. They are equally applicable to nations. They encourage cultivation of unvarnished, realistic stories of both personal and national histories. Such stories make more than enough room for people to love themselves and for Americans to love their country.

Endnotes

1. Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 79.
2. Exec. Order No. 14190, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” 90 Fed. Reg. 8853 (January 29, 2025).
3. “America 250 Civics Education Coalition Partners,” Know America. Love America., America 250 Civics Education Coalition, accessed April 23, 2026, https://america250civics.com/.
4. “David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (New York: Viking, 2012), 65-66.
5. Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (Ballantine Books, 2021), 395.
6. Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits trans. R.J. Hollingdale (London: Penguin Books, 1994).