Across the Unit­ed States, many Amer­i­cans are cel­e­brat­ing their coun­try’s 250th birth­day by clos­ing their ears to all the par­ti­san shout­ing. All the fin­ger­nails-on-chalk­board screech­ing out of Wash­ing­ton. All the clam­our of so­cial me­dia ag­it­prop.

In­stead, in var­ied ways, they are tun­ing in­to their own per­son­al con­cepts of Amer­i­ca the Beau­ti­ful.

In As­so­ci­at­ed Press in­ter­views with cit­i­zens in the days be­fore the Fourth, au­to tech­ni­cian Joe Fuqua-Be­jara­no, in Tope­ka, Kansas, sized up “what makes us awe­some” as a peo­ple. It’s clear­ly not the pol­i­tics, in his view, but rather re­silience.