Today is the 4th of July. It is America's Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, setting the Colonies on a path to independence and a destiny apart from Great Britain.
There is a poem that I think is appropriate for July 4th. It is called "Let America Be America Again." It was written by a black man named Langston Hughes. The gist of the poem is this: for people around the world who live harsh lives, who live in poverty, who live in fear, who live in desperate situations, America is an idea that beckons them. America is also a place, also a country, but it is the idea of America that draws people from around the world. America itself was never the idea, yet people came because of the idea of America.
A 1630 sermon by a Puritan named John Winthrop is now famous for its proclamation that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” The phrase "city on a hill" has persisted in American culture and has been used by several presidents. The version most Americans remember today is Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill." The shining city was never a place you could step foot into. It was an idea. It was a destiny. It was a call from the Divine and a reminder that, as was stated by Luke in the New Testament, "To whom much is given, much will be required." America has been blessed, but much has been required of her as well.
When Langston Hughes wrote "Let America Be America Again, Let it be the dream it used to be"; when he wrote "The land that has never been yet—and yet must be—," I think he had in mind the city on a hill and the inspiration in knowing there must a place where Good and Evil will struggle but Good, in the stretch of time, will prevail.
Full poem: Let America Be America Again
1 comment:
Happy Independence Day to you Mr. VW! I enjoyed your blog as always but it really impressed me this poem, I read it and I loved it. The person that wrote it, expressed a lot of things that he lived and felt in that land and everything that he said was true. But this blessed land got stronger and has given opportunities to the dreamers to do something else and be somebody else. I really believe that God has blessed this land because it is the land that will protect us from evil. Thank you for this amazing message in this special day and not being American, I feel like one. I honor this country. "God Bless America" and you Mr. VW.
TA
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