Allegiance

We live in a country where allegiances are undefined and unclear. We have presidential ties to Russia. We are uncertain of our future and that is disconcerting. We have allegiances to people, places, and things that are of no benefit to us. What are you committed to? Where do your allegiances lie? Are your allegiances beneficial? 

Liberty

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Inside of the Statue of Liberty, a sonnet entitled, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus was engraved on a bronze plaque in 1903. Above is an excerpt from that poem. People traveled from all over the world to come to America's "melting pot." They came here in search of a better life, or simply to escape religious persecution. America was their safe haven. This same country that called for the tired and the poor have turned their back on the tired and the poor.

They have ignored the cries of our current labor force and refused to give them the liberty they desire. They have dispatched task forces to deport mothers from sons. In honor of Labor Day, we should celebrate the true labor force of America. I salute the slaves on whose back this country was built. I salute the illegal immigrants who clean our houses, cook our food, and tend our lawns. I salute the legal immigrants who seize entrepreneurial opportunities that American's won't. I salute those who seek liberty in all of its forms. Happy Labor Day! 

Perfect Peace

I've probably had more conversations about race in America more this week than I have had in a long time. I've been reminded of America's dark history that we still refuse to confront. I've seen pictures that resemble the lynch mobs of 1919. I've seen things reminiscent of Jim Crow and Reconstruction, and it saddens me. In 2017, we are seeing the same racial atrocities that occurred centuries ago. It seems like we are moving backward. We cannot afford for history to repeat itself.       Peace usually follows war. There is no need for peace when there is no violence and chaos. As much as we may not understand why all these things are happening, maybe this is necessary for us to finally address America's original sin; not greed, but racism. Maybe this is the catalyst for the change we want and desire. Maybe this is America's necessary evil to achieve perfect peace. 

Liberty

I dressed up as Frederick Douglass for a Black History Month celebration at Audubon Montessori Elementary School. I teased my hair and used chalk to create gray streaks all over my hair. I wore a black church suit and a white blouse. I was sharp. I memorized and delivered lines from Douglass' famous speech, "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July" with passion. I guess you can say I have always been a bit dramatic.

Here I was, this nine year old child in a room full of people who did not look me, spewing out lines about injustice, black oppression, and the hypocrisy of America. Douglass delivered his speech in 1852. This is before the Civil War was fought and won. This was before the Emancipation Proclamation. This was before our so-called "Liberty." Here we are in 2017 and unfortunately his words still ring true. We are slaves to poverty. We are slaves to an unjust legal system. We are slaves to a prison pipeline. We are slaves to capitalism. We are still slaves. 

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.