French colonists established Mobile in 1702, more than seven decades before the Declaration of Independence was signed. ... What that long history teaches is this: America is not a completed work. It never has been. It is a continuous act of construction, carried forward by communities, businesses and individuals who decide, in each generation, that the future is worth building. ... Two hundred and fifty years is a long time. It is also, in the life of a nation with this much still ahead of it, just the beginning.