After hearing and singing our national anthem throughout our lives, we may miss the grammatical twist at its heart. Its entire text is a question.

When Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner in 1814, its question was literal for him: “O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light; What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming…?” Captive on a British ship during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, he could see our flag still flying in the flashes of artillery that lit up the dark. Come dawn, however, he wondered who won the battle. America had, and the Battle of Baltimore became a turning point in the War of 1812 that helped drive the British to make peace.

That the flag survived the night heralded a military victory but, more important, was proof that a people and their ideas — their democracy — had withstood their would-be oppressors. Our flag has marked other defining moments: over Iwo Jima in World War II, on 9/11 at the World Trade Center, on the Moon in 1969 and countless other moments of national achievement and resilience. Now, as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, how are we doing? How do we answer the anthem’s question? “Does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Rarely do threats to what we cherish announce themselves with fanfare. Disease, apathy, estrangement — they all seep in gradually. Usually only once they’ve taken hold do we realize that vigilance could have prevented them. Values weaken the same way, slowly under the weight of a thousand tiny compromises. One of our most important national values — freedom — is no exception. It survives not in historical documents, elections or laws — those are its byproducts, created to sustain it. It lives in the commitment, tenacity and bravery of those who prize it.

I worry that we seem to have outsourced that bravery to others these days but still expect strong outcomes that benefit us. Take the basic building blocks of our society — government, businesses and charities — even religious groups. Trust in them is reaching all-time lows. There may be justifiable reasons for it, but we also cannot blindly hand off the keys to them and then complain when their leaders start serving themselves instead of us. They only remain accountable when the people who originally entrusted them with responsibility stay actively engaged.

Coming together to insist that our leaders serve us and remain true to essential American ideals — liberty, freedom and equality among them — can be hard. Retreating into our own worlds and letting someone else do the messy work of practicing democracy is easier. Pursuing our individual interests, including ease, is our right, but none of our rights came to us like a lottery prize, unearned and by random chance. Individualism is one of America’s greatest strengths and has fueled the pioneers, innovators and change agents behind our nation’s unmatched creativity, invention and productivity. Yet no one truly succeeds alone. We are all shaped by families, neighbors, schools, workplaces — community. We must remain engaged in every part of the American community if we expect its pieces and parts to remain healthy.

Certainly, wars are one end of the spectrum in which bravery in defense of freedom and our other rights is found, but not the only place. It’s also found in polling places, protests, shareholder meetings and town halls — anywhere individual citizens accept the challenge of working together to protect the ideals of liberty and equality that allow us, We the People, to govern ourselves.

We each answer the national anthem’s question in our own way. Choosing not to answer is an answer, too — just not a good one. A better answer is stepping up from spectatorship, engaging in the sometimes-messy work of our communities, shaping them ourselves and insisting that those we entrust with power never forget whom they serve.

Are we still brave enough to do that work in defense of our freedoms of thought, faith and expression? Do we still have the courage to stand up to tyrants within and without who would chip away our freedom for their own gain or aggrandizement?

Francis Scott Key eagerly awaited dawn to learn if our flag was still there. Every generation has its own dawn. Ours is now. Will we do what it takes to keep answering our national anthem’s enduring question with a confident, “Yes”?

Scott Milburn is an executive-in-residence at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.