Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656
Theme: As we come to the end of Black History Month we recognize that the American Dream has not been fully realized by many in our country. We are called to stand in solidarity with all who are threatened with violence, with hatred, and with discrimination. We stand in hope that the voices of justice and freedom will prevail, and that we move one step closer to a country where all are equal and treated with the dignity and respect all are due.
The New Colossus/give Me Your Tired, Your Poor/motherless Children
Kim and Reggie Harris, Rabbi Jonathan Kligler
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes - 1902-1967
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used with permission.
Reflection Moment
Petitions
To the Creator of all races and peoples, who loves each of us for our uniqueness, we offer our prayers of petition:
For an end to discrimination in all its forms, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That each person may be respected and valued as a child of God, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That the Church may be a witness and a universal sign of unity among all peoples, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That each of us may acknowledge our part in mistakes and sins of the past pertaining to discrimination and racism, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
For a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation among peoples who share a history of mutual mistrust, hatred or aggression, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That the victims of racial prejudice may forgive those who persecute them, and that their persecutors may have a change of heart, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That the Church will continue to strive to make every element of human life correspond to the true dignity of the human person, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
For those who have struggled in the past and continue to do so today for civil rights, economic justice and the elimination of discrimination based on race, nationality or religion, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
For the conversion of the hearts and minds of those who allow another's race to influence their relationships and limit their openness, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That we may work to influence the attitudes of others by expressly rejecting racial or ethnic stereotypes, slurs and jokes and be affirming of the cultural contributions of every racial, ethnic and religious group in our world, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That we may make a personal commitment to abolish social structures which inhibit economic, educational and social advancement of the poor, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
That we may work for decent working conditions, adequate income, housing, education and health care for all people, we pray ... Bind us together, God of Love.
Written by Augustinians of the Midwest
Closing Song: Freedom Road | Kim and Reggie Harris
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