Eclipsed
“Nations
like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light
returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and
resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the
same as the survival of the soul.”
Victor
Hugo
So, unless you are
brain-dead, and maybe even then, you know that today there will be a
total solar eclipse across American. Of course, we are claiming it,
as we do almost everything, as “The Great American Solar Eclipse”
as though, somehow, we had brought it about. This is as good a sign
as any that, as a nation, we are experiencing another kind of
eclipse. We've badly tarnished our status as the land of the free and
the home of the brave, especially if you happen to be a person of
color. We may as well pop that plaque off the Statue of Liberty that
declares:
“Give me
your tired, your poor,
Your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my
lamp beside the golden door.”
Emma
Lazarus (excerpted from “The New Colossus”)
Emma Lazarus, who was, by
the way, a Jewish poet, wrote this sonnet in 1883 to raise money for
the building of the Statue of Liberty, and the plaque was applied to
its base in 1903. It expresses what America meant to the world at the
time, and for more than a hundred years after. At this moment, that particular sun has eclipsed.
I hope we will take a
moment today, while we watch the moon move across the sun, to ask
ourselves what kind of “Great America” we truly want. Do we want
the endless night of war and poverty on the one end, and vast wealth
and hedonism on the other? Do we want a country where only white
people are welcome, or do we love the rich, diverse nation that we
have become?
“The Great American
Solar Eclipse” comes at a moment when we in the US are grappling
with big questions that need big answers. Will we continue to be open
to the lost and tempest-tossed? Will we acknowledge the many gifts
that diversity has wrought? Are we experiencing a total eclipse of
the heart of this great country? I believe we will rise to the
occasion. I believe that the vast majority of Americans are open and
loving people. I'm glad we're awake and taking stock. Enjoy the solar eclipse today, and give some thought to resurrecting “The Great
American Soul.”
In the Spirit,
Jane
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