Fairfax County residents still have plenty of opportunities to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday with reflection, celebration and an eye toward the future.
“It’s amazing to look at our plans for June, [and] just wait until you see July and the rest of the year,” Elizabeth Maurer, chair of the Fairfax County 250th Commission, said when briefing the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday).
The 17-member commission has been hard at work “creating, supporting and amplifying” events connected to the nation’s birthday, Maurer said.
“Some of them are looking back at the past, some are looking to the future,” she said, expressing the hope the planned events will succeed in “reaching as many people as we can.”
Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay said local residents benefit from having so many opportunities.
“There’s so much rich history right here in Fairfax County,” he told commission members. “Getting the message out is sometimes the hardest thing, and you are doing a great job.”
At the June 9 Board meeting, supervisors voted unanimously to designate June as “Declaration Day” in Fairfax County. It will mark the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Rights, adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates on June 12, 1776.
That resolution, penned at least in part by George Mason, laid out the idea that “power is vested in and derived from the people,” supervisors said in marking the anniversary.
“You cannot talk about America 250 without thinking about the Declaration of Rights,” Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck said. “One does not happen without the other.”
His Dranesville District colleague, Jimmy Bierman, read of from Article 1 of the declaration:
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
Bierman noted the similarities to Thomas Jefferson’s verbiage in the Declaration of Independence, adopted less than a month later.
Christopher Eck, executive director of George Mason’s Gunston Hall, agreed.
“Tom did copy a bit,” he acknowledged.
Eck said Gunston Hall in Mason Neck has a number of upcoming events planned to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S.’s push for independence from England, including “Declaration Day” celebrations on Friday and Saturday, June 12-13.
More special programming is on the horizon.
“It’s a momentous year,” Eck said.
After events of July 4 conclude, the county’s 250th Commission plans to set up a new committee that will look at ways to offer “legacy” programs in 2027, Maurer said.
