You’re fed up, anxious and unsure what to celebrate this holiday weekend.

In many letters this week, you’ve shared your concerns about President Joe Biden’s health, former President Donald Trump’s plans for 2025 if he returns to the White House, the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, and several initiatives in Baltimore and throughout Maryland.

More than one of you expressed dismay about a country you don’t recognize, a brilliant idea born 248 years ago that has gone wildly off course. A husband and wife in their 80s told me they were marking the Fourth of July holiday by protesting outside the Supreme Court. Others questioned if the nation’s 247th year would be its last as a democracy.

I have an answer to the latter: It’s up to you. Democracy only dies if you let it.

Too much of the national conversation is focused on the candidates and their surrogates, not the voters. It’s easy to forget you’re the most important part of this election, of every election. You decide. You decide who stays, goes, returns, or never comes back. You decide what kind of laws we have by the people you put in power. You decide what kind of country we have.

This isn’t just some cheesy reminder that the government works for you and your vote matters. I’m also not naive to the fact that voting is still too hard for too many people, and there are despicable efforts across the country to suppress the right to vote and courageous fights to empower it.

When I say you decide what kind of country we have, I mean with your actions every day. It’s how you treat yourself and your community. It’s how you treat people who disagree with you. It’s how you work for what you believe in. It’s how you take the brilliant, imperfect country of 248 years ago and build it into something better.

This work will only happen with you as an active participant. Yelling at the TV or talking to the echo chamber on social media won’t change anything. Participating in political polls won’t change anything.

Some of the most powerful phrases in our lives are no more than three words. I love you. You’ve got this. Yes, we can. We the people.

The preamble to the Constitution begins with, “We the People,” not “We the Government.” The birth of the nation, forming a more perfect Union, building a democracy, and saving a democracy are all about you.

I’ve lived through major weather disasters in my personal life and a horrible flood that destroyed my childhood home. As a journalist, I’ve covered some of the most devastating moments in communities across Pennsylvania and around the country. In each heartbreaking situation, it was never the government that made things better in the immediate aftermath. It was neighbors helping neighbors. It was the broken-hearted helping others whose hearts were shattered.

And in this moment of uncertainty in the country, it will be you — not a politician — that makes it better. It won’t be reassurance from a star governor sticking by his party leader. It won’t be a talking head on TV. You will decide what kind of country you want and are willing to work for.

Yes, it will take work. You’ll have to use your right to vote. You’ll have to encourage the people in your life who are eligible to vote to vote. You might have to help someone register to vote or register yourself. You might need to help someone in your community get to the polls. You might also try to befriend someone who doesn’t agree with you politically.

My life is richer because I keep folks close to me who don’t always vote for the same person I choose. Surrounding myself with different viewpoints is part of how I remain an independent thinker and remember that we’re all the sum total of our life experiences. I have voted for both major parties in my lifetime, and I tend to gravitate toward candidates who don’t make me feel like I have to pay attention to the government every day.

I don’t think our nation’s founders ever intended or wanted government to consume our daily lives. There are far better things in our lives that deserve our energy.

I know it can be hard to dream about the kind of life or country we want when so many of us have to overcome obstacles daily. Sometimes, life can get so tough that it feels like we’re fighting just to get through a day.

I’m not so naive that I think any opinion, including my own, will change the world. Opinions don’t change the world. Ideas do.

Our country was a good idea. But our best idea wasn’t 248 years ago. We’ve had other good ideas along the way to build a more perfect United States. We’ll need your great ideas to make it another 248.

Candy Woodall is the opinion editor at The Baltimore Sun. She wants to know what you love about Baltimore and what you would do to make it better. She can be reached at cwoodall@baltsun.com.