Where Our Country’s Heart is Aching
This week has left me heavy with reflection. I find myself asking: what does our American flag truly stand for? What do the words of the Star-Spangled Banner mean when we stop and listen carefully, not just with our ears but with our hearts?
When I hear those words sung, I don’t just hear a national anthem, I feel the echo of generations who longed for freedom, who fought for justice, who believed in the possibility of a country where dignity and respect were not privileges but rights. And yet, as I look around at our world, our nation, even our neighborhoods, I can’t ignore how violence has crept into places it simply doesn’t belong.
Violence has no place in our country.
It has no place in our communities.
It has no place in our homes.
And yet, here we are. We are watching lives cut short, families shattered, and hearts broken. Regardless of political views, affiliations, or beliefs, I can’t understand how anyone could ever believe it is acceptable to harm another human being, to erase a life that was never theirs to take.
The truth is, our country is aching in its own heart. We are carrying wounds deeper than politics, deeper than policy. We are wounded in our ability to have conversations, real conversations, that are honest and open without tearing each other down. We are losing the art of listening. We confuse disagreement with hate, and in doing so, we forget that compassion is what keeps us human.
If we cannot speak to one another without cruelty…
If we cannot sit in our differences without violence…
Then how do we ever expect to heal?
Our nation will not succeed if we continue to let anger be louder than understanding. Progress does not grow from pain inflicted on one another. It grows when we stop and choose empathy over judgment, dialogue over division, peace over violence.
The American flag is not a symbol of perfection, but of resilience. The anthem is not a song of triumph, but of perseverance. They remind us that even in the darkest nights, the dawn comes, and with it, the chance to begin again.
So today, I ask myself, and I ask all of us: how will we begin again? How will we choose to protect the value of life, to create a country that is not just free in principle, but loving in practice?
Because if our nation’s heart keeps aching like this, it won’t be politics that breaks us, it will be the silence we kept when we should have spoken with courage, kindness, and truth.
