It’s somewhat ironic that the motto adopted for our sesquicentennial (250) anniversary as a country is “250 years of freedom.” The irony is that it’s only been landed white men who have had full freedom for that long. Ray Smock describes the broad history of the groups of citizens who have had to struggle to rightfully claim their freedoms and how even now some of those hard won freedoms are under threat. The freedom to tell the whole truthful story of our 250 years is what we need to celebrate.