My friend (and former boss) Reid Williams gave a talk in Kalamazoo, where he helps run a local news site, about curiousity and civic imagination. You should watch the whole thing. In the middle of it, he said this: “America is a question.” And with the 250th anniversary of that question upon us, I decided to write out all the versions of that question I could think of.

I’m not going to answer or expound on these questions. I welcome you to answer them yourself.

Who belongs?

Who decides?

How do we decide?

Who counts? and for how many?

What is life? What is liberty? What is happiness?

Can my happiness impede your liberty, or your life?

Where can we live?

Can we live together?

Would somewhere else be better?

Are we a democracy? A republic? Something else?

Can we keep it?