I’m not at a loss for words, I just find myself saying the same words over and over again. Today like every other day my soul cries for broken hearted parents who find themselves unnecessarily burying their children prematurely. I feel like a murderer every time our society fails the innocents among us. I feel like a rapist every time innocence is taken from a child who awakes to the hopeless horrors and their dreams become forever tarnished. I feel like a hypocrite because every single time a tragedy happens, we become temporarily human, compassionate and caring, and kind. But like all tragedies before this one, the pain, compassion, and human kindness will go away as we retreat back into our self centered bubbles and argue about the principle of what should be, while life continues to be lost to the reality of what is. To say we have to do better is a gross understatement. But I’ll say it anyway because it’s the truth. We must do better if we want to have any chance at a brighter tomorrow. — Sean King
We are not that America
We are not unified citizens working together for a better tomorrow
We are not compassionate human beings lifting one another as we climb
We are not unselfish politicians fulfilling our promise to work for the greater good of the people
We are not the Miracle of 34th Street
We are not the humble grace of “Thanksgiving”
We are not innocence until proven guilty
We are not equality and merit
We are not the intellectual contradictions who framed the constitution
We are not a Democracy for the people
We are not rational thinking civilians using guns to protect our freedom from imperialists
We are not dreamers boldly blazing new paths and forging better tomorrows
We are not one indivisible nation under God providing liberty and justice for all
We are not the home of the brave we sing about in our Star Spangled Banner
We are not the Manifest Destiny
We are not the revisionist Americans of our history books
We are not the peaceful European explorers who vanquished the savage indigenous animals
We are this America
We are glimpses of beauty
We are flashes of hope
We are hints of greatness
But mostly,
We are the lie of Columbus
We are the savages
We are the imperialists
We are the adulterers
We are the animals
We are the rapists
We are the murderers
We are the warmongers
We are the takers of dreams
We are the enslavers of children
We are the thugs that stole the land
We are the America that was founded on 2 parts violence and 1 part idea
We are the pepper spray facial on the 99%
We are the mindless stomp of Black Friday
We are the Stand Your Ground killers of innocence
We are the dogs attacking the marchers
We are the hoses washing away hope
We are the billy clubs beating King
We are the bullets in the back of tomorrow
We are the walking contradictions pledging allegiances to justice and liberty while committing crimes against justice and liberty
We are the America that hides behind the idea of America
In isolated communities gated away from our fear
Behind our antiquated principles
Behind our flag, religion, and the God we’ve made in our likeness
We are the America who sacrifices our children at the altar like lambs, that then sheds tears
While screaming at the top of our lungs “How did we get here!”
We are the America that fails to understand time and time again;
Getting Here, to this dreadful state of horror and fear, is the one thing we did as a collective
Getting Out of Here is the one thing that we must do together
Don’t let their truth
Become your boundaries
Don’t let their fear
Ruin your fantasy
Don’t let their failure
Become your destiny
Don’t let their tragedy
Define what you see
Don’t believe your dreams
Can’t be your reality
Reach for the STARS
and BE
Who you were created to BE
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