Last January, now a whole year ago, America may have experienced both its worst and best days of the year.
One year ago on Jan. 6 there was a violent and deadly attack on our U.S. Capitol building and on the senators, members of Congress and their guards who were trapped inside and forced to flee from danger to save their lives. Former President Donald Trump was impeached for inciting the mob but was acquitted by a near-unanimous vote of Republican U.S. senators. Our America remains torn in pieces a full year later.
The best day for America last year may have been Jan. 20, also an event that took place on the U.S. Capitol steps. While the event we are speaking of is the Joseph Biden presidential inauguration, we are nominating it as America’s “best day” not for the politics, but for the poetry. We were filled with hope for our America while we listened to the word song of Amanda Gorman, our national youth poet laureate, now age 23.
Remember her words from her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” that she read from the Capitol steps while wearing that bright yellow coat?
“The hill we climb/ If only we dare/ It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,/ it’s the past we step into/ and how we repair it,” she challenged in her poem, which she ended by reading, “When day comes we step out of the shade,/aflame and unafraid,/ the new dawn blooms as we free it./ For there is always light,/ if only we’re brave enough to see it./ If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Alas, too few of us have shown the bravery she called us to. But poetess Gorman has not given up. She has penned a new poem for her America in 2022 entitled “New Day’s Lyrics.” She writes: “May this be the day/We come together/Mourning, we come to mend,/Withered, we come to weather,/Torn, we come to tend,/Battered, we come to better.”
Here in Sonoma County last year, we saw glimmers of bravery and people stepping out of the shade. While the numerous local Black Lives Matter marches and protests were sometimes angry, with moments of violence, in the days after we witnessed many of our younger citizens coming back to the streets in demonstrations of unity, social justice and empowerment. These civil rights protests were often led by local Latinx and Black students, but people of many ages, colors and affiliations also carried banners and joined the chants and singing. In some of those moments, we “were brave enough to see it.”
Many editorialists this week are looking ahead to the challenges and hopes for 2022 but most are mired in the grim aftermath of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Those behind the crimes and attacks on our democracy must be held accountable. But we all should open our new year with a reading of Amanda Gorman’s “New Day’s Lyrics.” The full text can be found on Instagram (instagram.com/p/CYEpCgxBTAf).
We are reminded of the differing responses after the 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001) terrorists’ bombing of the World Trade Center and other targets. A few days after the bombings all the members of the U.S. Congress gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and sang “Gold Bless America.” All around the globe major centers of religious organizations coordinated interfaith services and ecumenical prayer sessions, live concerts and televised messages of unity. But, at the same time, the Bush Administration declared war on terrorism and soon launched invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
We don’t know if we may yet heal from anti-democratic attacks by some of our own citizens against our own government and elected leaders. We know poetry alone is not the solution, but Gorman says she writes poetry because, she believes “poetry is so important because I think it’s a unique communication form, which demands us to rebel against older orders.”
That sounds like a good way to start a new year.
