TW: blood, violent attacks, screams, etc
You can’t define America in one word
Because it is defined by a constant dichotomy:
A dream and a reality
Barbarity and benevolence
Gaudy idealism and a broken promise.
A deep, personal conflict between humanity and hypocrisy
A beast to some and a blessing to others.
Whoever she may be,
Her exceptionalism can only be found in the affirmation of her ideals
Through the struggle to make them real
The claim of liberty
Made by those who were denied it
It was the foot soldiers
The marchers
The freedom fighters
I think of March 7th, 1965
They called it Bloody Sunday
Edmund Pettus, a literal clash of ideals
One that shed blood
Women and children, on the ground
Bleeding
Tear gas,
Shattered bones,
Screams
But Bloody Sunday not only shed blood
It shed light
It helped to wake a nation
To shock its conscience
A catalyst
Because while the police were armed with batons
They were armed with a sacred faith
In Democracy
I recognize only one face
John Lewis
He was necessary to the movement,
But so were the others
The ones I can’t recognize
They were foot soldiers
America’s heroes are the ones we don’t know the names of
Those who lived a hidden life
But marched
And bled
And built
Those who believed
Who didn’t boast exceptionalism
But actually strove to achieve it
They called it a holy war*
One that’s perpetual
One that we have to keep fighting
We stand on their shoulders
We owe it to them
* John Lewis's memoir, Walking with the Wind: After staging a sit-in in 1960 and getting arrested, Lewis says that "with all these friends, these familiar faces piling out of those wagons, it felt like a crusade, as if we were prisoners in a holy war" (Lewis 101).
Editors: Chris F., Nadine R., Nicole O., Marie H.