The Dawning of This New Day by Rev Deborah L. Johnson

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 150^th 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.