I Still Believe In You, a Letter To America
Dear America.
I still believe in you.
No, I'm not saying that I always believe in the people that make up America. In all of life's experiences with people, there are the good, the bad, and the ugly. No, America, if people were the primary source of my belief, I would have to write YOU off.
I still believe in you.
Even though you nearly wipe out the Native American people who possessed this land before you came; Even though you institutionalized slavery of people
from Africa; Even though you allowed Jim Crow to exist for decades; Indeed,
America, in spite of all of these atrocious deeds, I still believe in you.
I still believe in you.
I think it's the ideas and the ideals; it's the core principles that I believe in. I see them in The Mayflower Compact, The Declaration of Independence; I see them in The Constitution and in President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
I still believe in you.
I have seen those principles down through history as YOU struggled to make right YOUR wrongs. No, it's not about the people who human, like me, are at times frail, fearful, feeble, and fickle. No, it's not about the people who human, like me, have compromises and contradictions.
I still believe in you.
I think it's because of what I read in The Pledge Of Allegiance to the flag of The United States. Like the above-mentioned documents, it gives pause to the power of principles and beliefs. The contents of those documents are linked, not to the hypocrisies and transitory notions of people, but rather to the eternal non-altering principles of The Word of The Living God.
O America, I still believe in you.
For a thousand reasons and more, I still believe in YOU, America. Let it suffice to say in closing, that I believe because I have learned from YOU something that YOU appear to have always known. Namely, that we all must aspire to something far beyond and so much greater than ourselves. Namely, if the things we confront are willing to be a friend, embrace it, but if not, dare to stare the seemingly impossible foe in the face and in the name of God, defeat it.
O America, I still believe in you.
I cry and pray that WE will be able to withstand the many assaults against OUR core beliefs. I have every reason to believe that, with God helping us, we shall succeed just as in prior challenges. However, as WE ponder OUR present pain, OUR present lack of justice for all, WE must not hesitate or stall. WE must admit that many things have to change if this republic is to long remain.
What need not change are The Constitution and Our trust in The Living God.
We must remain on a course as a nation whose God is The Lord. If we have come this far by the good graces of our God, do we dare think we can go forward without our God?
O America, I still believe in you.
Perhaps our way forward points to a past blessed with men and women having hearts of bravery. Our pathway forward must be a highway paved with courageous people, not liars, hypocrites, and cowards. Indeed, as we embark upon what appears to be a highway leading to a precipice of the unknown, do we dare not seek the mind of The Living God?
Yes, America, I still believe in you.
062620PSCtest, Strain New Poetry(1), Brain Strand
2nd contest entry, 7/1/20, NA Rerun 9, John Hamilton
Copyright © Curtis Johnson | Year Posted 2020
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