Week 18: Identity

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The day before the Inauguration, I walked through Arlington Cemetery with a group of students. There was so much controversy in the air with Trump’s pending presidency that it seemed like every person walking through the grounds that day was on edge. Trump supporters were there in droves with their “Make America Great Again” hats on. As a group of mostly brown skinned people, it was difficult to walk past them. No words were exchanged, but our students felt like those hats sent a clear message: those people did not like them.  

Nevertheless, there we all were, walking those hallowed grounds. Why? To pay our respects to the men and women who fought to defend our great nation. We had that in common, so one may ask, “what had divided us?” Why would two groups of Americans feel animosity towards one another--in a cemetery of all places? My answer: we have lost our identity. I think it’s safe to say that, right now, America is having an identity crisis. We don’t know who we are. When a group of people don’t know who they are, they are very susceptible to allowing someone else tell them who they are. This is the void that Donald Trump filled.  

On this memorial day, may I suggest we take a look at Arlington Cemetery for some clues to who we are?

Arlington Cemetery has over 400,000 graves. It has many notable ones, but the one that I think speaks best to our values is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Many countries have something like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but ours is different. Why? Because we are different. Everything about us. Our people are not “one” people. We are everyone from everywhere. The Unknown Soldier could have an English last name, or a German one. He might have black or brown skin. She may have spoken Spanish or Chinese as her first language. He could be Jewish or Muslim. She could be several generations American, or still be working on her citizenship. You see, when you visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, it’s difficult to imagine who that soldier is, because, like I said, we are different.


However, all the soldiers represented by that Tomb have one thing in common. They fought and they sacrificed for us. They sacrificed so that we can be different. What will we do with that gift? What would they want us to do?

This week in Portland, two men died and one was critically injured defending two girls from an anti-Muslim and racist tirade on a train. Ricky John Best, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche and Micah David-Cole Fletcher stood up for the girls. Ricky and Talisin paid the ultimate sacrifice.     

                                          Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche                       Ricky John Best

This is who we are. This is America. We don’t let rhetoric divide us by race, gender, religion, language, or anything. If we are anything, this is what we are. We have struggled throughout history to provide liberty to all of our people, but in that struggle we have lead the world to provide liberty to all people. That’s who we are. That’s our identity.

This week our fallen heroes from past and present remind us of this identity. Our homework this week is to do our part in recapturing our identity. Let’s start with The Pledge:  

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all."

    





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