This Is Not America

Remember watching Eyes on the Prize a quarter of a century ago and thinking that something like the murder of Emmett Till couldn't happen anymore?

How naive I was. My eyes have been opened over the years, yet I still feel blindsided.

This is not the America I was raised to believe in and, yes, a country is like a deity in that its continued existence depends upon our faith in it. The America in which I believe does not value the rights of people to own guns over the rights of children to grow up. The America in which I believe does not allow grown men to murder unarmed children. The America in which I believe does not value the lives of some mother's sons over other mother's sons. The America in which I believe is a fairy tale that never existed, but I have to keep believing that it can exist and fighting for it.

But on nights like tonight it is hard. This is not the miracle.