How public celebrations quietly remake what it means to be American

According to Catherine Simpson Bueker, a sociology professor at Emmanuel College writing for The Conversation, public celebrations quietly reshape what it means to be American. Whether it's a five-kilometer run organized by a synagogue or Appalachia's Hillbilly Days festival, these shared community events pull strangers together and, through repeated gathering, help forge a sense of national identity that transcends geography and background.

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