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Who Are We, America?
An Election Day Reflection
Who are we, America?
Are we as beautiful as we claim to be or some ugly, wretched, monstrous else?
Are we the embodiment of our promises of liberty inscribed on our statue? The safe haven for the tired, poor, huddled masses, wretched refuse, homeless and tempest-tost or not?
Who are we, America?
Who are we?
Are we the words of our Declaration? The truths we hold self-evident?
Are we the bill of our rights? The First Amendment? The Second? The whole decalot?
Are we the ones who have given up trying to remedy an unpaid debt of a bitter land theft, an intrusion that hasn’t been adequately acknowledged, a nation built on land that isn’t ours, or are we ones who know the value of water and are willing to stand with those at Standing Rock?
Are we a nation of immigrants as we have fashioned ourselves — hardworking, loyal, dreamers? Are we our language malleably encompassing new words from our collective homelands or the shrill stifling screams that, “we speak english here?”
Are we the crying clinging refugee child who crossed the desert and was ripped from the arms of her migrant mother and caged or the armed sentry watching at the foretold wall?
