1.
I’m thinking of change.

How it moves through time but sometimes stops and returns not to what is best but to what it knows. The rotten familiar.

Nearly 100 years ago, Langston Hughes wrote I, Too. The poem appeared in his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, published in 1926.

We think we have traveled, have leaned away from prejudice, have softened our hate. And yet, here we are. Back again, and still, to racial oppression and degradation.

We never left our ugly past.

2.
I love this country and loathe its descent.

Some of us — hopefully many of us —feel what poet James Crews calls an ache “for all the cruelty of this world.”

As the holiday nears, I brace myself for rockets and glare, for the boastful pride that can turn our flag to menace.

3.
“Find your own patriotism,” says writer Rex Huppke. “Speak loudly. Stand strong. And believe you have it in you to make a change.”

When I stand in protest.
When I champion and defend.
When I write these words to you.

I am saying: This is what democracy looks like.

This is the freedom I will celebrate and protect.

Quietly, steadily, without shame.