Longtime public servant 'guardedly patriotic' as America turns 250

At age 72, Houston-area county commissioner Rodney Ellis has seen a lot of both progress and setbacks for America. He's celebrating America's birthday but has concerns about her future.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

As the U.S. turns 250, we are hearing reflections on America from across the country. John Burnett brings us one from Houston, Texas.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: Rodney Ellis will celebrate our 250th birthday at picnics around his precinct in Houston with barbecue pork ribs and iced tea, and a heaping helping of worry about the nation's future. The garrulous 72-year-old county commissioner is guardedly patriotic.

RODNEY ELLIS: We should be celebrating that America is a process. It's not finished yet. We've done some great things in this country. Patriotism, to me, is not just pretending America has no flaws. Patriotism is telling the truth and doing the work to repair the harms that have come about over these 250 years.

BURNETT: The son of a maid and a landscaper, Ellis has served 43 years in public office, first as a Houston city councilman, then state senator and now as a Harris County commissioner. Fifty years ago, during the bicentennial, Ellis was a public affairs graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin. In 1976, there were 18 Black representatives in Congress. Today, there are 67.

ELLIS: But we've made tremendous progress since then, tremendous gains. And so when I compare what was happening then to what's happening now, I look at how quickly a lot of those fundamental rights, those gains that we've taken for granted, have rolled back so quickly.

BURNETT: He ticks off areas where he believes America has lost ground, clean air and clean water, people of color in key positions in government, owning up to uncomfortable U.S. history and selfless public service.

ELLIS: We got, you know, a certain level of narcissism in government, and as opposed to celebrating America's independence 250 years later, you have people celebrating themselves.

BURNETT: But, says Commissioner Rodney Ellis with a broad grin, that's how it's always been in America.

ELLIS: Progress is made, but along the way, sometimes you take two steps forward and 10 steps back. But you don't give up.

BURNETT: For NPR News, I'm John Burnett in Austin.

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Correction July 1, 2026

A previous web introduction to this report incorrectly said that Rodney Ellis is a former Harris County commissioner. He is still serving in that role.