Step Into the Past

When I was riding around DC the day before president Trump's inauguration, I looked at the diverse students on my bus and wrote these words. “I see in these students’ hope for our country. My eyes tear up as I write that phrase. Let me write it again. I see in these students hope for our country.” These students were teenagers then. They are in their twenties now. On president Biden's inauguration, fourteen days after January 6, 2021, another young person in their twenties took the stage. Stole the stage, I should say. Amanda Gorman recited her beautiful poem, The Hill We Climb. There is one line in her poem that I think reveals our country’s path forward.

 American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

I began writing over four years ago for the first time in my life, to defend the “pride” I inherited. As I wandered around the National Mall the day before president Trump’s inauguration, the placards spoke to me. I was bewildered and thought to myself, “How could a country with ideals like the ones etched in stone in our National Mall elect a man like this?” That reflection was titled Hope and Fear. Fifty five more reflections, which materialized as sporadic blog posts, followed as I tried to answer that question. Amanda Gorman answered it in one sentence. 

American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

Amanda Gorman is right. If you are born or Naturalized into our country, you inherit a certain level of pride. Our country forged a new type of government ruled by a constitution rather than a religion or a crown. This constitution granted freedoms not seen elsewhere. People from around the world flocked to our shores and still do. Our system of government has been copied from Scandinavia to Sub-Saharan Africa and from Asia to South America. On top of this, we managed to be on the winning end of two world wars and through advancements in technology our culture and arts have spread across the world.

This is the “pride we inherit.” However, just like the placards on the National Mall challenged me four years ago, Amanda Gorman is challenging us today.   

American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

So, what is the past we need to step into? How do we repair it? 

The best way I can explain it is that America is like a war hero with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Too many of us just want to honor the hero for his sacrifices and leave it at that. We claim that this is out of respect for the hero, but in reality this is bad for the hero and will eventually lead to his demise.  The number one treatment for someone with PTSD is therapy. The hero needs to talk about his past as hard as it may be. If we really care about the hero, we would encourage him to do this. 

If we really care about our country, we need to do the same. January 6, 2021 was an example of what can happen if we simply rely on the “pride we inherit.” The people that stormed the capital building were proud to be Americans and felt like they were defending America. They were defending their war hero. But this is not the reality of America. Just like any other war hero, we are imperfect. 

Why is it unpatriotic to admit this? While our Four Fathers drafted our constitution, they held millions in bondaged. While millions flocked to our shores, millions more were torn from their land. Our “perfect” constitution has been amended 27 times. While we liberated Europe and parts of Asia, we denigrated large swaths of our own society. While I sit in the comfort of my home, substantial discrepancies in quality of life still exist between White Americans and People of Color.  

If we are going to claim to be the inheritors of America’s pride, then we too must inherit her shame. 

However, shame does not equal defeat. In fact, confronting this shame is our only hope. Abolitionists confronted the shame of slavery, and it was defeated. Activists confronted laws that targeted native and immigrant groups, and those laws were defeated. Civil Rights Activists confronted the shame of legal segregation, and it was defeated. We must confront the shame of the substantial discrepancies in quality of life that still exist between White Americans and People of Color. If we do, it will be defeated. 

In order to confront the discrepancies, we need to do what Amanda Gorman is challenging us to do. Step into the past and repair it. Stepping into the past, the real past, is going to be painful. So much of our history has been spoonfed to us, inflating our pride (white pride) while ignoring our shame. This is not revisionist history. It is history. We need to step into it. Once this is done, we can repair it. One of William Faulkner’s most famous quotes is  “The past is never dead. It’s not even the past”. When we look at the substantial discrepancies in quality of life that still exist between White Americans and People of Color, we can draw a straight line from historical and current governmental structures. Mass incarceration, school funding, housing discrimination, etc… The list is long, but right there in front of us.   

Four years ago, hope in my students brought me to tears. Those were the tears of the pride I inherited. Today that same hope sits just beyond our reach. All we have to do is step into the past and repair it. 

For there is always light,

if only we're brave enough to see it.

If only we're brave enough to be it.     

-Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb