A week ago, on front pages of both the weekend edition and the Monday edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, we published stories about our history, as perhaps the launch of our observance of the United States’ 250th anniversary.

It is difficult to affix a label or phrase that this project truly has a start — we frequently publish feature reporting on historical events. Just last month we published a series of special editions looking at the region’s history, “Then and Now.”

We believe that an appreciation, maybe even an understanding, of our communities’ history and our nation’s history better prepares us to confront the problems and challenges of our present and prepare for the world we want and we want our children to have in the future.

The resolute principles of the Fair Play Charter and its signatories in Jersey Shore and the Tiadaghton Valley, the hard work and perseverance of the farms and fields east and south of Williamsport and the factories and plants of Williamsport, the forests and mountains of northern Lycoming County, the neighborhoods and towns where our generation and the generations before us lived and went to school and worship services, the families that worried as sons and daughters left to serve their nation — those are the stories that crafted a nation dedicated to ideals — to freedom, opportunity and equality.

We believe reflecting on these stories, this past, allows us as communities and as a nation to better protect the values of freedom, opportunity and equality in the present and future.

We, perhaps ironically, look forward to looking back this year on the stories that made our nation and our communities a source of pride and of inspiration to generations of our family, friends and neighbors.