TWIN FALLS, Idaho — 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, the country still faces core challenges over what it means to be free. A new six-part civics series at the Twin Falls Public Library aims to explore why the Declaration still matters today.
Perri Gardner has taught political science at the College of Southern Idaho for a decade, and she's been looking forward to the 250th celebration of the Declaration of Independence for a while now.
"I've had the national (America 250) celebration website bookmarked for like five or six years now," Gardner explained.
Gardner will lead the first of six civics events at the Twin Falls Public Library to mark the 250th anniversary. Her talk will focus on the 27 grievances listed in the Declaration — harms or injustices done to the colonies by King George III, which gave the Continental Congress the push to separate from England and toward independence.
"We all know that — sometimes I call the poetry section — the philosophy section of the Declaration of Independence. 'We know these truths to be self-evident,' our life, liberty, [and] pursuit of happiness. Most Americans can quote those lines pretty easily, but the real meat of the document is in the back half that we don't recite or think about all that often," Gardner said.
She says many of those grievances have resurfaced throughout the nation's history.
"I hope that we can have some interesting conversation about, you know, what our founding generation felt was key for a successful government and for what is unacceptable, and that maybe we can talk about what grievances we still have today," Gardner said.
Library staff, including CJ Rasmusson, say the series addresses common questions they receive from patrons.
RELATED | Coins marking America's 250th birthday unveiled without designs for Trump, civil rights or suffrage
"Here at the library, we always get lots of questions about a wide variety of topics, and a lot of them usually are government questions. So, with America 250 coming up, we thought this is a great opportunity to present a whole series of different programs examining different aspects of government," said CJ.
The first civics event is happening at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
