At 250, America must renew its founding promise

As the United States of America approaches its 250th anniversary, we are called not only to celebrate our history, but also to reckon with it and recommit ourselves to the values that shaped this country at its founding.

When the founders spoke of liberty, justice and equality, they did so imperfectly and incompletely. Those ideals were aspirational, not fully realized, and certainly not extended to everyone. But they set something powerful in motion: the belief that the legitimacy of our democracy depends on fairness under the law, accountable institutions and the inherent dignity of every person.

Two and a half centuries later, those values should still serve as our moral compass. The question before us is not whether they matter. It is whether we are willing to make them real in the lives of the people who live here now.

I confront that question every day through my work at Community Legal Aid SoCal, where I serve as executive director. For more than two decades, I have worked to expand access to justice for low-income individuals, families and seniors across Orange and Los Angeles Counties.

Recently, our office worked with a single mother who had never missed a rent payment. When an unexpected medical emergency forced her to miss work for several weeks, she fell behind and received an eviction notice. She did everything she was supposed to do--communicated with her landlord, sought help and showed up to court--but without legal representation she was still at risk of losing her home. With legal help, she was able to assert her rights, secure a reasonable repayment plan and keep her family housed. That outcome did not require special treatment, just meaningful access to justice.

Her story is far from unique. Across Orange County and Los Angeles County, millions of residents are eligible for civil legal aid, yet far too many still face critical legal challenges on their own.

I see versions of that story every day: survivors of domestic violence seeking safety and stability; seniors choosing between medication and rent; veterans, workers, immigrants and parents trying to navigate systems that are confusing, overwhelming and too often stacked against them.

These are the daily realities people in our communities face, and their ability to access justice--to be heard, protected and treated fairly--is a measure of how well we are living up to our founding promise.

The rule of law is one of America's most enduring contributions to the world. But laws have meaning only when people can rely on them. When justice is available in practice only to those with means, it stops being justice and becomes a marker of privilege rather than a public guarantee.

Returning to our founding values means remembering why those ideals mattered in the first place. Liberty was never meant to be reserved for the powerful. Equality was never meant to remain theoretical. Justice was never supposed to depend on your zip code, your income or your ability to navigate a complex legal system alone.

That is where legal aid comes in. Civil legal aid is not about special treatment; it is about a fair shot. It means ensuring that the courthouse doors are open to everyone, not only those who can afford representation. It means making equal justice under law real for the people who need it most.

In Southern California, as in communities across the country, legal aid organizations work quietly but effectively to stabilize families, prevent homelessness, protect survivors and keep communities whole. At Community Legal Aid SoCal, we work in partnership with courts, government agencies, health care providers, schools and community-based organizations because justice does not live in silos--and neither should solutions.

This collaborative, community-centered approach reflects another founding value that deserves renewed attention: collective responsibility, the idea that we are stronger when we take care of one another, and that democracy depends on participation, trust and shared investment.

As we mark 250 years, returning to our values does not mean looking backward with nostalgia. It means looking ahead with intention. It means asking whether our systems reflect the country we want to be--and having the courage to change them when they do not.

It means recognizing that access to justice is not a side issue. It is central to economic stability, public safety, family well-being and democratic legitimacy.

At 250, we can choose to recommit to the ideals that launched this nation--not as slogans or sound bites, but as obligations. We can choose to build a justice system worthy of those values. And we can choose to ensure that liberty and justice are not merely celebrated in speeches but made real in people's lives.

That is the work this moment demands, and the legacy we should leave for the next 250 years.