While Philadelphia's cultural establishment curates its version of America's 250th birthday, two marathon runners and a ragtag crew of volunteers are carrying the American flag 3,016 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the nation's capital on a shoestring budget — and that divide tells you everything about who still believes in this country.
The semiquincentennial was supposed to be a unifying moment. Instead, it's exposing the same fault line that runs through everything else: the institutions that run on endowments and government grants versus the people who just show up.
National Review reports that Philadelphia's 250th art offerings split exactly how you'd expect. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, fresh off what the outlet calls a "dazzling renovation," delivers something worth seeing. The Philadelphia Museum of Art? Not so much. One institution remembered how to honor the country; the other served the usual fare.
Meanwhile, out in the real country, marathon runners Joe Nail and Wyatt Moss launched the Relay for America — a coast-to-coast flag relay born, per the movement's website, from "a ragtag group of young people on a shoestring budget, with about two weeks to plan something most would spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on." The idea came when the two runners met while trying to complete 50 marathons in 50 states. As the 250th approached, Nail pitched a cross-country relay carrying the flag. Moss pushed it further: open it to everyone.
The relay launched Sunday at Rodeo Beach in San Francisco, with about 15 people touching the waters of the Pacific before heading east. Each of the 3,016 miles is dedicated to an American veteran. As of Friday, the flag had already reached Utah. The team is averaging roughly 161 miles per day, running through all hours, and expects to arrive in Washington, D.C., on the evening of July 2.
"We think that America is still an exceptional place," Nail told Fox News. "There's this narrative — people like to talk about all the things that are wrong with America, and really the spirit of this relay is showing all the things that are right about America."
The whole operation runs on volunteers — management, media, operations, press, bookkeeping — not six-figure consultants or federal grants. The website tracks the flag's location in real time and lets Americans calculate when it will reach their state.
The contrast writes itself. In Philadelphia, the city where the Founders organized in taverns under British rule, the establishment offers museum exhibitions that can't all agree the country is worth celebrating. Across 14 states and counting, ordinary Americans are running through the night carrying a flag on a budget that wouldn't cover a single staffer's salary at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The question isn't which celebration is bigger. The question is which one the men who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor would recognize as their own.
