25 Jan The Dawning of This New Day by Rev Deborah L. Johnson
© January 20, 2013 Rev Deborah L. Johnson
In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr Day,
the Inauguration of President’s Barack Obama’s second term and
the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
As we stand upon the dawning of this new day
with eyes purified seeing through the lies
that have denied the divinity of our humanity
giving cause to pause the full granting of our liberty.
On the dawning of this new day
We are able to say
“Thank you, God, for having brought us from such a mighty long way.”
The road has not been easy – bittersweet its song,
Yet this rugged journey has made us strong,
Convinced us that we belong standing here together against systems enabling wrong
and we marvel at the miracle that we are standing together. . . . at all.
We are part of the dream King inspired into imagination
As we stand in unification for the diversification of our nation
full of colors and textures
No more conjectures of cookie cutters
that cut away everything that does not fit within its margins.
We stand here on the brink of a new dawning
Open to new realities,
Courageous enough to create the world as we want it to be
No more acquiesce, no more looking for a hero to bring justice
For always it has always been – Just Us
The goodness forever in our hands
Yet we must expand this “us” to include the ones we exclude
Because they intrude upon our privileges
Which heretofore, we have never had to share
Do I dare to care enough to let you into my comfort zone
Suspecting that it will shatter the moment I concede that you matter?
And what is a comfort zone but a self-induced sandbox to be transcended
As it is blended with new awareness, new understanding, new experiences
That dissipate the leariness, the weariness of the burden
of carrying generations of shame, guilt, and ignorance.
We declare on the dawn of this day, a new way of being
Decreeing that freedom shall reign from every mountainside
That freedom shall reign in every barrio and ghetto
from Motown to Chinatown,
from suburban valleys to skid road alleys
from factories to the Ivy Leagues
from prisons to painted deserts
in cities from sea to shining sea
we will retrieve the promise of our creed
That we are equally created, endowed by our creator with the inalienable right
to pursue happiness, liberty, and life.
And pursue we do
We pursue not by chance or pre-ordained selectivity,
nor by legislation, or through internally oppressed anonymity.
No, we will live and we will love boldly – loudly
by divine design and our own audacious incline.
We will build bridges over gullies of greed
tunnel through roadblocks of poverty.
The frigidity of apathy melts into hot springs of hope
Frozen access thaws into clear open paths
That greet down trodden feet
Where no bellies could ever be empty
in a land full of fruited plains
Our children will grow with the freedom to know
that they are safe and provided for
And that every door that they have the courage to knock on
Will open by the purity and intensity of their authenticity.
We won’t wait another minute
for the senate or the congress to get us out of our mess
For we possess the strength and the drive
to revive our deepest intent –
which we will no longer sell to the highest bidder to rent.
Each of us is a winner, an inheritor of the riches of the soul
Endowments untold as we unfold into this new dawning
No longer longing, but living out our creed
The seed of liberty and justice for all finally finding some fertile ground
not just rhetoric, a lofty sound
Finally some fertile ground , a new foundation, for all a solid rock
Not a single island like Ellis upon which only some were permitted to dock
I am talking about a new foundation upon which we all can stand
As sisters and brothers of a nation who collectively demand that
We rise together catching those who fall
Letting none slip through clasped fingers, no matter how small.
On the dawning of this new day
We drive away the divisiveness of otherness that blinds us to our togetherness
We bear witness to this change of heart
Not as voyeurs of history in the making, but architects of destiny, here for the taking.
From the Mother of Pure Light within the soul of our souls,
We find wholeness in this new boldness
that transforms the essence of our US presence into a blessing wherever we go
Where there is no need to fear that we are near
And all over the planet, our footprint leaves an imprint of empowerment
Let the heavens rejoice in this day
When by our determined spirit we redeemed our checkered past
And from this day forward leave a new legacy
A lineage of compassion and prosperity,
The austerity to begin again
With a new lens which, like the arc of the moral universe,
Bends towards justice.
On the dawning of this day let it be said
that we did not shirk our responsibility
To make possibility a reality
On the dawning of this new day let it be said
that we, a multiply-colored people,
With a braveness of heart had the audacity to start
A revolution where the solution is not one up and one down but
A resounding
Yes WE Can,
YES We Can
Yes We CAN
Sí se puede
Sí se puede
Sí se puede
Yes We Can, Yes we Will, Yes we Are
Now
As move from dawn unto this new day.
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