It’s hard to celebrate the rainbow when the color has been drained.

I feel faded. Washed out. And I’ve been trying to understand why. Much of it begins with the events and aftermath of January 6, 2021. They defied almost everything I was taught to believe about this country. Maybe I’ve simply gotten older and lost some innocence; maybe the innocence was always incomplete.

I remember the Bicentennial. I met my wife that summer. As a nation, we had come through a decade of assassinations, race riots, campus unrest, university bombings, a presidential resignation, the Vietnam War, and we were amid a Presidential campaign. One candidate was an “accidental” President who introduced himself by saying, “I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln.” The other wore a wide smile, asked to be called “Jimmy,” and said he was just a peanut farmer from Georgia. The humility was refreshing. Both men seemed to offer a vision for the nation, hope for the future, and respect for each other.

I grew up in a time and place where you had to pass a civics test before being promoted to high school. We were taught that justice was blind, that everyone was equal before the law, and that if you applied yourself, worked hard, and played fair, you could build a good life.

My mother taught me invaluable life lessons: “If you have to brag on yourself, then you mustn’t be very good.” “Look after and include the person being left out.” “Don’t pick on someone.” “Don’t make fun of someone.” “Be polite.” “Always give a happy greeting, especially to someone you may not like.” “Share.” “Don’t take the last piece of cake or cookie.” “Be neighborly.” “If you don’t like someone, look carefully, because they may be reflecting something you don’t like about yourself.” “There is some good in everyone. Look for it.” “Don’t vote for yourself. If you can only win by one vote, then you don’t deserve to win.”

All of that seems quaint now.

I’m a Baby Boomer. I was fortunate to be born when government was not merely a punch line, when public schools, parks, and facilities were visibly maintained by tax dollars, and when opportunity still felt broadly shared. I was born before traveling youth sports priced out many families, before school lunch policy became a national joke, and before theories of shareholder supremacy reshaped how many people understood business and public life. Like many in my generation, I benefited from public investment, including Pell grants. I was sheltered, fortunate, and privileged.

But as I grew older, and sometimes wiser, I learned that some of what I had been taught was incomplete. I became friends with people of different skin tones and languages. I saw how far a person can fall without a social safety net, and I saw firsthand the brutality of “the law of the jungle.” I learned that Parson Weems painted a picture of America that was not the whole truth. I learned how prevalent latent racism can be, even among the “best” of us, and how quickly fear can silence our “better angels.” The Lost Cause, Confederate flags, redlining, the KKK, Jim Crow, lynchings, internment camps, and the relegation of original people to reservations are not abstractions; they are part of the cultural and historical DNA that helped shape me into who I am today.

As Lincoln was inspired by the Declaration of Independence in the Gettysburg Address, I remain inspired by its aspirational character and tone. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created in 1995, tried to help a country heal through full and truthful disclosure. Germany undertook its own reckoning after World War II. Nations do not heal by pretending the color is still bright. They heal by naming what drained it and choosing, again, to restore it.

I close with these words from Jefferson’s pen: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. The promise was never fully kept, but it remains the promise worth keeping.

May we have the courage to bring the color back.