Every weekday morning, I say the Pledge of Allegiance with over 300 children.
These energetic souls attend the grade school where I teach Language Arts. They speak, collectively, over 20 different languages. They have come from countries around the world to the neighborhood across the street.
Their joys are the typical joys of children: new shoes, a handful of dandelions, birthday party plans, but their sorrows are deep and their burdens, heavy. Many come from the relentless grips of poverty, and school is a safe-haven.
For most, America has been a safer place than the country they came from.
When we finish the pledge, “...with liberty and justice for all,” I look around at their faces and I wonder what their futures will be. I know that “liberty” and “justice” will be hard fought in their lifetimes. I fear that these children will inherit an America where their civil liberties have been removed, one by one.
And the country that has rescued them, given them safe haven, has also elected a president who has made us a spectre of racial hatred and indecency in the eyes of the world.
We are divided not by partisan politics or by volatile, differing opinions. We are divided by a president who takes pride in dividing us, who takes pride in proving that he can get away with obscene behavior.
We must take a long, hard look, because this is what hatred looks like. This is the foul soil from which institutionalized racism grows, putting down its twisted roots to stay.
When your hand is over your heart, “liberty and justice for all” seems like a promise. We must remember that, really, it’s a goal. And it’s not everyone’s goal.
I’m Paula Coulahan, and that’s my perspective.