My Love for America is Not Blind

I’m preparing a talk for Sunday and stumbled on this quote. It speaks to much of how I feel on this July 4th.

I love my country. … But my love for America is not blind. Perhaps I am more conscious of her faults because I love her so deeply. Nor am I blind to my own faults. It is easy to see that there is little virtue in the old formulas, and that new ones must be found, but even after one has decided this, it is not easy to hold a steady course in a changing world.

- Helen Keller, excerpt from The Open Door, 1957

The blessing of this moment is not in the parades, picnics, or fireworks. It is in the collective awakening to a greater awareness of who we have been as a people and who we have become as a Nation. It is a naked moment. No place to hide from the Truth. An imperfect Union, frayed not by time but the failure to see our humanity in one another. We have been taught this is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. This is our moment to prove that it is not propaganda, but lives in our hearts, and unites us in actions that rejuvenate our Constitution toward Freedom and Justice, and creating the world we know is possible for All.