America is often described as a grand experiment.

That’s true. The hypothesis of the Founding Fathers was unlike anything found in the monarchies of Europe. It was new and exciting.

It took British common law and bonded it to the Magna Carta’s liberties. It agitated the idea with John Locke’s social contract. It heated it all over the flame of French philosophy.

Then it asked a question: Could a government derive its authority not from a crown but from the consent of the people?

It was a daring idea, and that is where the experiment lies.

It was in the creation of a government that was a solution. Not like the answer to a riddle, but a chemical solution. It was a mixture of substances that became something new — a homogeneous combination where the parts do not separate.

At least, that was the hope.

The theory was tested in 1861. Less than 100 years into the experiment, the Civil War was an unanticipated variable. It threatened to break things down as 11 states seceded.

But the bonds held.

Today, 250 years in, the experiment continues.

On this anniversary, much attention is focused on looking back. We chart the distance from where we started to where we are — and everything that has happened along the way.

Milestones prompt reflection. But we cannot wallow in the past, either out of nostalgia or regret, because the experiment has not concluded.

Every ballot cast, every law enacted, every budget passed, every road paved, every service delivered and every judicial ruling becomes another test.

The Constitution is not the experiment. It is the protocol that governs it, the scientific method that defines the parameters.

The experiment is the people.

And as we move forward toward a third century, we must continue to examine that hypothesis and test its strength. We must continue to strive for the distant horizon of a more perfect union — not one that has achieved that state but one that acknowledges a changing world has an ever-changing definition of grace.

We must fight against the things that threaten the careful calibration of the test — the contaminants of partisanship and infighting. This experiment has been generations in the making. It has been worth living for and worth dying for.

And it is worth carrying on.

— Pittsburgh Tribune-Review