We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –Declaration of Independence
DECLARING
Lois Roma-Deeley
How and when does this country stand up and shout we are the people who hold
the nameless and forgotten ones sacred? Do not let any of these
other voices, those raving bullies, destroy the living truths
we’ve inked onto our lawful tongues. This is the time to
ask of every city and town, what fears now rule our nation? Let us be
the ocean that laps both shores, relentlessly self-evident–
deep water reflecting blue sky. For that
which carried us here, all 250 years, speaks to the many and the all.
Strangers we once were, looking for our place amid the throngs of men
and women standing shoulder to shoulder in the square. We are
more than any rabble’s icy savage rage. What was long ago created,
in and for and by us, still lives. The freedom to be. Equal.
Do not turn away. Know that
base alchemy which dissolves each of us into a faceless they
turns golden hours into leaden days. There are
no comforts, no relief in the middle of a mob endowed,
emboldened with the giddy desolation of our desires. By and by
they’ll want our lives to come completely undone. And when their
foot is on our necks, who will they name as our Creator
then? What bitterness will save us? We will be alone with
the hollowing out of our hearts. This much is certain.
Our forebearers proclaimed what was once the unthinkable. Unalienable
as gravity that pulls us to the earth-our natural rights
are as enduring as the movement of the sun and stars. And that
binds us to each other. Let this knowledge be our final yes! Now stand among
those who came before, will come after, for these
times demand we go beyond ourselves. This is who we are–
one people. Courage, it takes to live this kind of life,
this collective pledge of individual dissent. This liberty
calls each of us by name and
we will rise. We will resist the
wailing riot of despair. For there is one pursuit
in the very center of
our striving: a hope, a promise, an abiding this. Which is. Happiness.
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I CAME HERE FOR SOME ANSWERS
Lois Roma-Deeley
At the top of the Grand Staircase
Lois Roma-Deeley, American poet, editor, and educator, born 1952.