remember,

a country is only a country

because a person said so.

i do not put it past us

we stole this land from Native Americans

for that is who we are;

we see it

we like it

we have to have it.

we do not apologize well

and humility takes a backseat to pride

all the time.

it is silly, stressful and dangerous to put

one person in charge of a people

and God does not bless America any more than he blesses the U.K. or China

because God doesn’t know what a country is

because he is bigger and wiser and more mysterious than having our back on gun violence.

there has been legal slavery

now we have illegal slavery.

we do not harvest

we do not conserve.

we do not care about the earth

and we want our white women to have more babies.

we set white rapists free

and lock up black men for weed.

we pledge allegiance to our country

before we even know what Allegiance means

and we stop pledging just in time for puberty

where we learn all kinds of ways to live apart from each other.

we have duct taped the mouths of our most intelligent brothers and sisters

and slipped under many a radar.

we have crashed and burned

and deflected the pain of our own doing

by blaming a God of our own understanding.

we are addicts

we are bullies

we are insatiable.

and...

i still believe this land was made

for you and me,

because, well,

you and me are here.

i believe amendments

commandments

pledges

declarations

and proclamations

were written when we were in our right mind, that one time;

when we were certain there is enough love to go around,

when we could taste each other's residency in the same Kingdom and we never wanted to live apart.

This has to be true;

i know that it's true

because...

you gather a diverse room of 55

people and start singing “this land is your land”

everyone will sing with you.

(it happened yesterday when i taught yoga).

and that Pledge of Allegiance,

it’s a really beautiful pledge—

one i may start saying each day

because I have tasted the consequences of not.