My Country 'Tis of Thee

I sit quietly this morning of July 4^th, 2025.

I am not in a mood to celebrate. I feel more called to hold vigil as if at the bedside of a gravely ill loved one.

For my country is gravely ill.

In fact, my country has never been fully healthy. It grew large and bloated on the empty calories of greed, oppression, White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Christian Nationalism.

Even while it has provided opportunities for many, it has limited opportunities for many more.

I have conflicting emotions as I hold vigil.

In my heart and my soul, I see who my country can be, how it can live up to its promise of “sweet land of liberty.”

 I am grateful to my country but angry with it as well.

In this country, I have been able to get an education, have a bank account, own a home, do meaningful work. Many people in this world, especially women, are denied that opportunity.

And yet equal rights for women are not enshrined in its constitution and bodily autonomy over medical care is being denied women resulting in their deaths.

I am straight, white, cis-gendered and have privilege that provides me protection not afforded to people of other races, sexual orientation or identity.

My country is not an equitable place.

It is built on land stolen through genocide. It is built on the backs of people of color, many of whom were enslaved.

It feeds on a working class struggling to survive.

It feeds on rich earth being poisoned and depleted.

It has historically and is once again concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few.

This is not a country to be celebrated, exalted. This is a country in need of healing, transformation, transmutation.

And so, in my vigil, I envision a new recursion of my country - one built on love, compassion, equity, possibility.

One where our land, air and water is clean and generously shared with nonhuman life.

One where Earth’s bounty is both consciously reaped and restored.

One where the Statue of Liberty is a true representation of our promise to the world, where those who come to our land and our shores are welcomed as kin.

One where original inhabitants are able to reclaim their sacred lands and ways, where the ancestors of those forced into slavery at last gain truly equal opportunity, and where reparations are paid to formalize apology.

One where gender and sexual orientation is not limiting or limited.

One where each and every person has the freedom to live out loud as their authentic self, a beacon of light to the world.

Of this, I sing.