What America Was Meant to Be
We often hear what they said back then,
no crown should rule over women or men,
no single hand should hold that key,
to bend the lives of you or me.
No whim of power, no passing decree,
should decide who lives in dignity,
no voice alone should make it right,
to dim someone else’s hard earned light.
That was the promise, plain and clear,
not perfect land, but something near;
a line drawn firm, a stand, a plea,
no rule by one, but liberty.
But time moves on, and we forget
what cost was paid, what debt was set,
and slowly words begin to drift
from lived conviction into myth.
And maybe now we stand and see
how fragile memory can be,
how easy it is to recite
but harder to defend the right.
So here’s the question, sharp and plain:
do we believe it once again?
Can we rekindle the democratic flame?
And with it our honor and pride reclaim.
Mike Johansson lives in Napier, New Zealand, where he serves as Director of Communications & Engagement for the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Born and raised in Napier, he spent more than 30 years living and working in Upstate New York before returning home five years ago.
Good plain question, Mike, with strong hope for “yes” as the answer. Especially like your imagistic call for “no dimming of someone else’s hard-earned light.”
Thank you Margaret – after living in the US for more than 30 years and having a daughter still living there I do feel these things strongly.
Yes, “time moves on, and we forget what cost was paid….” Indeed, how easily we forget the cost paid by others, like our ancestors and founding fathers. May our ceremonies, this year especially, bring back the memories that will inspire us to continue to work for the good of our nation. Thank you for this tribute to America, Mike.
Thank you
‘Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.’ Indeed, mass emigration, a native population dispossessed, the shadow of slavery, a land transformed by settlers, and two world wars, have become mythical over time and, after 250 years, the American experiment continues.
A thought-provoking poem, Mike.
The British didn’t end slavery until 1834, and you did it by essentially paying off all the slave-owners in Jamaica and the Barbados. That was really courageous, wasn’t it? We ended slavery with a sanguinary civil war that cost countless lives! Yes, we dispossessed the native populations — in the exact same manner as the American Indian tribes had been dispossessing each other for thousands of years before we arrived here! Yes, our settlers “transformed” the land — by making it arable, creating vast fields of corn and wheat, by building farms and great cities, and by transforming a continent into an unsurpassed powerhouse of wealth and achievement and civilization, where previously there had only been barbarian hunter-gatherers chipping flints over an open fire. And yes — we fought two world wars to save your ass!
Paul, your sly, under-the-table nastiness (typical of left-liberals) is getting to be a bit too much.
I’m sorry my poem seems to have sparked a political debate when I simply wished to highlight its principles of liberty and democracy.
I didn’t start this fight. The guy who lives in the slave-owning country of Mauritania did.
Thank you
Mike, what an important reminder that our memory is fragile, and it is too often easier to say empty words and not know the truths behind them that we need to be vigilant in defending. Thank you for this good reminder is beautiful verse.
Thank you for your kind words. My years in America taught me to truly appreciate what makes that country remarkable – and left me hopeful that those values can be rekindled.