On this July 4th as we celebrate our nation's birthday, it is a fitting to reflect on Francis Scott Key's rhetorical question posed in his immortal poem "Defence of Fort McHenry:"

                O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
                O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Over the past 236 years, since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, both America and Americans have withstood the tests of wars, conflicts, dissensions, divisions, and threats from within and without. Both the nation and its people have been transformed by waves of immigration, technology, and new thresholds of prosperity with a rising tide of expectations that followed.

As a nation, America began on rather shaky terms. Our initial experiment at organizing a government—the Articles of Confederation—proved unworkable. But Americans had already demonstrated a remarkable capacity to find pragmatic solutions to intractable problems. We were determined to prove that reasonable people could effectively govern themselves without the aid of a monarch, dictator, or otherwise sovereign overlord. Our nation's founders made us, the people, the sovereigns.

A Constitution was crafted that created a bold new framework for this experiment in self governance. America the nation was now a working experiment in self-government with institutions, processes, and traditions predicated on a written Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Since its ratification in 1788 by the states, the particulars on how we govern ourselves have evolved, but the tools for doing so, originally articulated in the Constitution, have become galvanized into the nation's fabric. We may question the relative power and authority of the presidency or the states or the courts or the Congress, but we don't question the legitimacy of the Constitution or the institutions and processes it established.

Since the nation's founding, we have honed the art of problem solving. Americans were never afraid to try bold solutions to big problems. Our success at crafting a plan to govern ourselves—this melting pot of diversity infused with rugged individualism—gave us the confidence to tackle problems great and small. We combined research and engineering with organizational and managerial resourcefulness to take on big challenges, some efforts even labeled as folly by their contemporaries. From the Erie Canal to the Panama Canal, from the National Road to interstate highways, from homesteading to land-grant universities, and from the Manhattan Project to the space shuttle, Americans have repeatedly proven themselves adept at finding bold solutions to otherwise impossible problems.

We discovered early on in our history that scientific research and skilled engineering were necessary, but not sufficient, to success. Our success rested in bringing those skills into an organizational context that brought together leadership prowess with technical knowledge to find solutions to each generation's challenges. Our success rested not in the fact that we could 'out-engineer' or 'out-science' other nations. In fact, some of our greatest scientists and engineers were and continue to be educated abroad. What we as Americans have always done better is to use our organizational and managerial expertise, in combination with other resources, to solve problems.

Our greatest achievements have occurred when we effectively marshaled private enterprise for public purposes. Construction of the Erie Canal succeeded only after the state of New York became a partner in the project. Commuter rail service between Denton and Dallas only became a reality with the backing of the Denton County Transit Authority. That pattern of public-private-nonprofit partnerships has repeatedly proven to be a successful formula in solving each generation's most daunting problems. By joining government and business together, they achieve as partners what neither could achieve alone.

The big problems that we face today are different from those faced by past generations. Today's problems pose real threats to the future of our nation and world. American ingenuity has brought more prosperity and liberty than seen by any previous generation. What is less certain is whether we as Americans still possess the confidence in our capacity to solve the really tough problems of the day. The baby boom generation born after World War II dedicated much of its energy and talents to promoting prosperity. And it was immensely successful. We used our formidable problem-solving talents to accelerate the speed of just about everything made by human hands and even some produced by nature.

But a new tide of problems, big problems, lurks at our door, some brought on by our own actions. A new generation of Americans is arising dedicated to making a difference. And they will achieve success by using the proven formula of bringing together good science and skilled engineering with the managerial talent and organizational resources of the public, nonprofit, and private sectors to find sustainable solutions.

In answer to Francis Scott Key's rhetorical question, indeed, that flag still proudly waves over a nation of free and courageous people. And it will continue to do so if we do not waver in our confidence to solve big problems.