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With Liberty and Justice for All
I’m tired of looking around and not recognizing the country I grew up in.
Every morning before school started, my classmates and I would gather in the assembly hall of our private Catholic girls’ school. Right hands over our hearts, we’d stand in our burgundy kindergarten jumpers and recite the Pledge of Allegiance alongside students from kindergarten through 8th grade, our teachers and faculty. Though most of us we were just children, still learning how to tie our shoes, read, or spell our names, we said those words with conviction…
“One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Because why else would we gather to say it every morning before school started?
That memory brought me back to the start of choir in kindergarten, when one of the very first songs we learned was “This Land Is Your Land.” At just five years old, I didn’t fully understand the politics or the poetry of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics — but I understood how it made me feel.
For 3 minutes and 8 seconds, every difference, every learning challenge, every little playground disagreement faded into the background. We were united by melody and message.
“From California to the New York Island