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I wanted to start by thanking you for inviting the 8th grade to BLS! It was an awesome production, and learning about the Declaration of Independence through this full lens that acknowledges all of the negative aspects of drafting the Declaration was very informative and eye-opening. This performance and the lessons we had before we watched it made me reconsider the “Hero” narrative that many textbooks and teachers embrace when teaching the Independence.

My story is part of American history because I am Asian. Asians have been here for centuries, even if people haven’t recognized them. We have been subject to discrimination and exclusion through the Chinese Exclusion Act and the immigration quotas following, but we have been here nonetheless. My story is also a part of the American story because my parents are both immigrants from China, and how America is a nation of immigrants.

In creating the Declaration, giving white men who owned property power was important. The writers did not think of poor people, people of color, women, or any of the other groups in America. However, we want to move forwards from that. To do so, we need to organize, speak, and rally people to show that we do care about this topic and that it is important to become a more inclusive society and to also have our representatives match that diversity.

We can hold our history as a predicament versus an affirming myth because we can see how our nation was built from the beginning to exclude. The Declaration of Independence had many holes and lackluster parts, as did the men who made it. We need to address these holes and build a more inclusive and diverse society, and not whitewash the negative aspects away. We have to acknowledge that in the past, everything was not perfect and good, and that we must move forward to make things better.

An honest reckoning with our past can help us move forward because it forces us to reflect on what went wrong and how we can do better in the future. As Santayana said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we do not reflect on the problems of the past, there is no way for us to address present problems; they stem from the past too. Only after acknowledging, understanding, and realizing the problems of the past can we begin to move forward in a better way.