With a 250th birthday insight, the Crossroads team is examining what it means to be an American

and reflect on what the founders built, who they left out, and what in that 250-year history

has been left unresolved. Judy Woodruff traveled to Vermont, a state with the motto,

freedom and unity, to try to get answers to these questions

for her series, America at a crossroads.

Dishes clatter, booths are cramped,

and orders fly out of the kitchen.

It's lunchtime at the country girl diner in Chester, Vermont,

where the service is brisk and the answers

to my questions are thoughtful.

What does it mean to people to be an American?

Seeing my country essentially split in half is very, very painful.

For customers, Scott McDonald, the country's bitter political divide is front of mind.

There was a time when you could just quietly disagree with somebody, and that seems to be gone.

Teacher Wendy Hayward told me, understanding our past, starts with how it's presented.

The way we have taught history in this country has been an avoidance of what our history

is.

The ideas here point to a deeper question, what kind of a country did the founders build,

and whom did they leave out?

What really happened with slavery?

What really happened to be with minorities, women?

I wanted to be able to go back to the founding.

...