Who can sing the chorus of America’s plight so well as Amanda Gorman, a poet, a young gifted black woman? Gorman stands on the shoulders of many black women who toiled, suffered, and even died. Women with bloodied aprons, backs bowed like tree limbs and whelped by the strips of slavery.
America, it is of thee she sings, a country that blacks built and love with their blood, sweat, and tears.
Yes, she chanted the story of our nation, the tale of a vulnerable unfinished democracy.
Listen to her mantra, “I am the daughter of Black writers, who are descended from Freedom Fighters, who broke the chains who changed the world. They call me.”
Yes, Amanda Gorman answers the call. Like her forefathers, her black brothers, and sisters, she’s a soldier of democracy and equality.
And the drumbeat of her words fearlessly marched between the chairs, ears, heads, and minds. The church of political oppression and human suffering was in session.
“So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.”
I heard Amanda Gorman, the U. S. first National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, perform her poem, The Hill We Climb. It was a poem befitting the 59th presidential inauguration, the installation of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States of America.
WOW! I was mesmerized.
Her countenance was the light of hope. Her hands kept pace with her words. Her eyes a spirited lasso but focused. And her voice sounded the shards of glass that fell but didn’t fell our democracy.
She said, “We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded.”
We must realize that hate, injustice, inequality, and disregard for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution can shatter a democracy. It can bankrupt the currency of truth, justice, and liberty.
On January 6, 2021, we witnessed this when insurrectionists stormed Capitol Hill with flags of division and hate. Rioters broke windows and doors and tried to overthrow the result of a legitimate democratic presidential election.
Gorman leaped over valleys and climbed hills with her voice, challenging America to stay the course, bind the wounds, and share the struggles to fend off would-be democracy wreckers.
When she was all done, America was still undone but hopeful, draped by the quest and pursuit for a more perfect union.
Gorman said, “We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.”
The color of Amanda’s face is the light of God’s blackness. The truth of The Hill We Climb is the bridge to a better America. And the colors of America’s diversity are the building blocks of our democracy.
Amanda Gorman inspired me. I pray that the many millions who have hope in this nation help America to live out its creed of democracy and equality for all.
Stay safe.