O America, beloved country
of freedom and equality,
let us stand in the clear light
and see how we have come to be
a land of force and of deprivation of rights,
rather than a land of empowerment.

From our beginning, all were not free.
Those who held power used it
to disempower others,
to rob them of their lands, their resources,
and their right to live their own lives.
Now, this current of violence is
being purified in the light of a new day,
in the light of a new consciousness.
For whether it is excessive force
used against young blacks
in Michigan and Louisiana,
or tasers and rubber bullets against
Protectors of the Waters at Standing Rock,
we are being called to accountability,
to not look away from the fact
that our nation was founded on
principles of light
and on the back of slavery.

This is the revelation in need of healing.
We are being asked, today,
to set ourselves free from this
diminishment of our ideals,
to hold together and remember innocence
and the pain of our own innocent hearts
that have always hoped for a better world.

O America, let us build a new foundation
for a land whose principles shine with virtue,
but whose practices have often lacked
the very virtue that created us.
May we stand with those who stand for peace.
May we stand with those who reject violence.
May we stand with those who uphold
the beloved Earth that has sheltered
and nourished us from the very beginning.
And may our caring for the Earth and her inhabitants create a new foundation for this land,
a foundation built on humility and love
before the One who has set the Divine Hand
of light and of promise
upon this sacred nation.