A declarative birth
a people reaching for freedom,
casting off the yoke of kings,
with hope in the promise of rights no man could take.

But what of the conqueror within?
We broke from the crown,
yet the hunger to rule
remained rooted in our soil.

Two hundred and forty-nine years,
a long season,
enough for wisdom to take root,
enough for the wounds to be seen
and, perhaps, begin to heal.

Among us walk the weary dreamers,
those still waiting,
too often made strangers in their own land,
too often pressed down by unequal law,
by the sinful weight of bias.

This is not destiny.
The past need not bind the present.
What was wrong need not remain so.
If we are brave,
let us show it now.

No strength is not found in hate,
nor is courage born of fear.
We can still become
that nation we dared to imagine,
one that truly shelters the free,
one where bravery is the choice to love.

One nation, under God,
but only if we seek Him,
and know the rights He grants,
and the responsibilities He commands.

He asks of us
to love the Lord our God
with all our heart,
our mind,
our soul,
our strength.

And love our neighbor,
every neighbor,
as He has loved us first.

For only together
can we learn
the truth of being.