Once upon a time in America
there was a last imperfect day.
A day when not only the churches,
but the temples and the mosques
called people to prayer;
a day when it was still legal to be a non-believer.
There was a last imperfect day when children
of every color and creed went to school;
A day when people could speak their mind
without fear of neighbors turning them in;
A day when people could speak Spanish,
or Arabic, or Portuguese, or Cantonese
without being arrested.
On that day women still owned their own bodies;
you were innocent until proven guilty;
And there was no government list of undesirables.
On that day, as it was in all the days before,
Life was hard, and messy, and difficult,
and full of compromise and hard lessons.
It was far from perfect.
It was full of failure, starting over, and trying again,
but it was real and there was enough hope
to wake up each morning and give
community, respect, dignity, and inclusion another shot.
In very many ways, it most certainly was not great.
There was, once upon a time, not too long ago
A last imperfect day like this.
And then America became great
Again.
Commentaires