I Weep for My Country
Today I weep.
I weep for my country. I weep for our history. I weep for our future.
Today I weep for everyone and anyone who will be told they are less than. For everyone who has now been targeted by a national platform that tells them they are not as worthy, that they are not as American.
I weep because I know that ultimately I am not the one who will feel the burden of humanity’s crushing defeat. I weep because I cannot confer the privilege given to those of fair skin and European descent onto people who are treated as strangers in a country that is as rightfully theirs as it is mine. I weep because I shouldn’t have to want to spare people hatred and ignorance for simply being who they are.
Today I weep for the fault line that divides us. I weep for the shattering blow to our unity. I weep for the blatant disregard for our history, for the unwillingness to learn from our past.
Today I weep because racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism have a name and a face. I weep because there are people who either cannot see or do not care. I weep because despite moving forward we’ve taken five steps back.
I weep because for two more months we have a President and a First Lady who have brought light to a country plagued by darkness. I weep because there is a little girl in Rochester, New York whose teachers didn’t believe she could read, that had a family to look up to in the White House that not only exuded authenticity and awareness, but that looked like her. I weep because there are people who questioned the Americanness of that family, who would gladly return to a time when it was acceptable to dislike and disparage on the basis of skin color, not merit.
Today I weep because that little girl in Rochester’s father was trying desperately to find a school for her in their zip code with teachers that would help her to learn and grow. I weep because that father is like the father of so many of our children whose access to education is restricted based on where they grow up. I weep because that little girl had read Harry Potter just like me, but did not have the privilege of teachers who viewed her insolence as potential and not stupidity.
Today I weep for my country, but tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow we face the struggles ahead, looking to the past for guidance and the future with hope. Tomorrow we reconcile with reality and reinvigorate our fight to ensure that ignorance only has one term. Tomorrow we strive for something better.
Tomorrow I defer to those who will lead the way, who have the right to be the champions of their own causes and the thundering voices against their aggressors. Tomorrow I recognize that while I feel and understand the devastation of this blow, I cannot fully comprehend as someone who will not be targeted, who will not be victimized; but, today I weep.
Today I weep and I write, because I cannot be silent in the face of this overwhelming threat to the land I call home, the people that I cherish, and the principles that I hold dear.
But, tomorrow, we seek to overcome. Tomorrow the courage of our convictions and the passion that we feel to overturn the wrongdoing that has befallen our country will guide us on our path to achieving a true America for all citizens, and for all that strive to be so. It will not be easy. It will not be without enormous hurdles. It will take cooperation and understanding.
Tomorrow we continue along the arc of history and endeavor to redeem.
Tomorrow, we rise. But today, I weep.
