The picture I was searching for was of me with some classmates, musical instruments in hand, getting ready for a 1976 Fourth of July parade. We weren’t wearing what you’d think of as standard band uniforms. No, our traditional Libby Loggers band uniforms were in tatters and would have cost far too much to replace. So our director came up with a great idea. Our new uniforms matched our community character. We wore blue jeans, red and blue plaid shirts, red suspenders, and red sneakers. We wore hard hats on our heads and had red handkerchiefs hanging from our hind pockets.

You see, from all the high school bands in our state, our Libby Loggers High School Band had been chosen to represent Montana in the national bicentennial parades in New York City on July 3, and in Philadelphia on July 4, 1976. It was a huge honor. It was an amazing and exciting time for me as a just-turning-16-year-old. I can’t tell you how many months, days, and hours our band spent marching up and down the streets of our small town in preparation for our national debut. We had to raise so much money to fly all of us from NW Montana to the east coast, put us up in hotels, feed us, and transport us around that this was a multi-year project. It took time to build up our musical talents, marching flair, organizational skills, travel abilities, and bank account. Fortunately, we had some very dedicated adult leaders.

Once in New York City, we youth learned about Italian food, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and visited the Statue of Liberty–all before representing our state in the great parade on July 3. Next, we traveled by bus to Philadelphia. Because President Gerald Ford was in Philadelphia on July 4, the city was so jam-packed with people that we couldn’t get near the Liberty Bell. But some of us entered a Jewish synagogue and had our first interfaith experience. A thunderous downpour ended the national parade prematurely, but, as we climbed onto our bus soaking wet, we knew we had done our part. Then we traveled to Washington, DC, visited the Smithsonian Museum, and attended a play at the Kennedy Center.

It was a whirlwind of wonder for me. A working-class girl from a small town, sheltered from the world, got her first glimpse of big cities and places of national importance. So, you can understand that I look back on that experience of our country’s bicentennial with fondness. I know our country wasn’t all peaches and cream in 1976. We’d been through VietNam and Watergate, mortgage rates were higher then than now, and there were lots of other problems in the news. But still–in my memories, at least–the celebration of 1976 felt so different from this 250th year.

In 2026, instead of celebration, we’ve felt embarrassment and shame at the behavior of our president and other leaders who prop him up. While we’re constantly being distracted by nonsense, cruelty, and ever new forms of dishonesty and corruption, America’s most basic problems are being ignored. We feel stymied from making the positive progress our nation and state need.

But this year of our 250th anniversary is not the time to be overcome by nostalgia, grief, or despair. If we feel betrayed, angry, or overwhelmed, there is one obvious and rather simple answer right in front of us. We need to vote for change. We need to elect new leadership that will restore our joy and allow us to finish this 250th anniversary year in a celebratory mood.

Here in Utah, the ballots are mailed right to us. All we have to do is open the envelope, mark our choices, seal up the envelope with our signature, and return it by November 3–preferably to one of those metal drop boxes in front of a county or municipal building.

This big 250th anniversary year isn’t over yet. Let’s make it count by doing something positive that we can remember with patriotic pride and celebration.

Kim James moved to Ogden in 2013 and served as the pastor of Ogden First United Methodist Church until she retired in 2025. This year, she is a candidate for Utah’s House District 8.