MY TURN
BY REBEKAH BRACKIN
Countless times throughout my life, I’ve stood to sing our national anthem, or “America the Beautiful,” and felt my voice break, as tears filled my eyes for no immediately obvious reason.
I’m not a “crier.” My parents were pretty stoic Depression and World War II survivors.
But wrapped up in those tears were imagining my 20-year-old father jumping off a landing craft, and then running for his life on Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. And the mental image of my mother’s first husband being gunned down at age 19 as his unit headed off from their landing site in the Philippines.
My brothers missed Viet Nam, thank God. The older one was married and finishing college. The younger one missed it only because his number wasn’t drawn. The politics, inhumanity and toll on human life are
incomprehensible.
How anyone made it back is unfathomable.
Conflicts Shaped America
Both of my grandfathers served in World War I; one in the Army and one in the Marines.
In the previous century, a great-great uncle and his son died and were buried at Wilson Creek Battlefield in Springfield, Missouri, as our country tore itself to shreds.
I’ve been to the National Cemetery and stood overwhelmed at countless rows of headstones representing fellow human beings who gave all.
Standing in the Lincoln memorial, I shed tears reading the Gettysburg Address, and at Appomattox, I stood where Lee surrendered, as soldiers out in the field were still fighting.
Americans killing Americans.
More than once I’ve been to the Oklahoma City Memorial to the victims killed in the Murrah Federal Building bombing. Adults and small children lost to a warped mind whose purpose was to atone for our government’s actions in Waco.
We are perfectly capable of annihilating ourselves.
Sadly, violence was a huge part of this country’s formation, and it continues to be, as human rights issues linger.
Where Are We Right Now?
Generations of Americans have faced unimaginable fears and experienced great losses in building this great experiment, but it seems like hatred for our government and intolerance for each other’s rights threaten to return us to violence once again.
Our family members have answered this country’s call time and again. What were they fighting for?
The story of America is complex, controversial and defined by turmoil, but until now, I felt immensely fortunate to be born here.
I don’t pretend to have answers.
I am not wise enough to play politics, and I’m not someone who can quote the track of history without
research, but I simply don’t recognize our country right now.
It seems like this political divide has drawn out the absolute worst in Americans. “To hell with other peoples’ rights, as long as I have mine.”
Hateful speech toward anyone with different opinions or backgrounds. Abuse of peaceful people who thought a better life awaited them here.
Instead, they’ve found violence over acceptance, and a dictatorship instead of humble, thoughtful leadership.
Defining Our History
For what purpose have our families sacrificed over centuries?
Anarchy? More loss? Treachery? Arrogance at a level never before seen in our lifetimes?
Perhaps we were heroes on the world stage previously.
I want to believe my Dad didn’t fight for his life all the way through France and Germany with doubt he was doing the right thing.
His worn-out combat boots, Silver Star, Purple Heart and his very life meant something to the French, German, and Jewish people trapped in a merciless power grab.
I feel like the real danger for us is weariness. I am weary. The news and my social media feeds are wearing me out.
“Don’t look at it,” one might say. True — my mental health would probably be better in a happy little bubble.
But that’s the danger for Americans. We cannot stop paying attention for one moment. We have to burst our bubbles and fulfill our duties as citizens.
Register to vote and vote in every election possible.
Do it now before that right disappears, as well.
Be Part of the Solution
If you are profiting from this leadership and continuing to endorse it, you have forgotten what it cost to build this democracy, and you are willing to turn your head to the atrocities committed.
You are an American just like any American, and you should care what happens to “even the least of these.”
We are in an extremely dangerous position right now, and everyone must sound the alarm.
We love our happy bubbles because it just all gets to be too much sometimes. But then I think about my dear family, my children and their partners, and my precious granddaughters.
I think about how many of the cherished classmates from my youth, whose families worked hard on ranches and farms.
Today those friends would be receiving a less-than-friendly visit from ICE.
For all of them, I can’t afford to quit my watch.
For those reading this, I hope you will remember what civil liberty for all means. If you are influential enough to make a huge difference, I beg you to do so. If you, like me, can only speak out and vote, do so.
Don’t sit at home on election day because you are weary or think your vote won’t make a difference.
You are an American. It is your right, and –I will add — duty, to vote.
Let’s work together and turn the tide. Let’s bring truth back to “Liberty and Justice for All.”
