As you approach the grave of any soldier who died defending America, take a knee.
For the courage and clarity of Colin Kaepernick, and his protest against police abuse, take a knee.
For Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Tamar Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Grey, Philandro Castile, and all the others who have died tragically and needlessly at the hands of police, those very officers who swore an oath to serve, protect, and defend, take a knee.
For Heather Heyer who was killed by a white nationalist in Charlottesville, take a knee.
For the more than ninety people killed and others who were wounded in shootings in churches in the last 20 years including Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist in Knoxville, the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Mother Emanuel in Charleston, and First Baptist in Sutherland Springs, take a knee.
For the churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples that have been desecrated or burned, take a knee.
For all those killed and wounded in more than 200 school shootings since April 1999, including Columbine, Red Lake, West Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Umpqua Community College, Santa Fe, and Parkland, take a knee.
For all of the other mass killings including the concert in Las Vegas, the Pulse Nightclub, and San Bernadino, take a knee.
For the refusal of legislators to pass sensible gun control legislation, take a knee.
For all of the wounded warriors who struggle for healing and wholeness, and for those veterans whose service to America led to homelessness or finally ended in suicide, take a knee.
For all of the immigrants who came to this land in search of a dream called America, for those now being denied asylum, for children ripped from their parents’ arms and imprisoned, and for countless others who died in the deserts of the Southwest trying to get here, take a knee.
For the Statue of Liberty, who now weeps, take a knee.
For black lives that have not mattered since slaves were brought to America in the 1560s, for the stunning incarceration rates of black males that represent the new Jim Crow, and for the cancer of dehumanizing racism that seems stronger than ever, take a knee.
For the genocide of the first peoples of this land and for every treaty made with Native tribes that was broken by the United States, take a knee.
For the ravage of drug overdoses, now dramatically increased by opioids, which killed over 70,000 Americans in 2017, take a knee.
For the corporate greed that resulted in close to six million foreclosures during the Great Recession: jobs lost, careers ended, families ripped apart, and dreams forever destroyed, take a knee.
For those white lives that now no longer matter, though their grievances are used to fuel the fires of dissension and racism within America, take a knee.
For the assault on our democracy: voter suppression, gerrymandered districts, Citizens United, special interests, Russian meddling, and more, take a knee.
For the undermining of the rule of law, for trading lies for truth, for the assault on the free press, for political tribalism, for legislators who betray the constitution and their oath of office, and public officials whose greed places self-interest above the national interest, take a knee.
For the willful ignorance of climate change and the peril that the earth and we face, along with all life, take a knee.
For those who have given up on the American dream, both in this country and among our allies throughout the world, take a knee.
For all the women who have been paid less than men for the same job, for those who have suffered domestic abuse, and for those who have suffered sexual harassment and assault, take a knee.
For the elderly who seek dignity in their declining years, for the differently-abled who struggle to make a life worth living, and for all who simply seek to love whom they love without ridicule or discrimination, take a knee.
And for every other way in which we have fallen short of the nobility of which we as individuals and a country are capable, take a knee.
Take a knee as an act of compassion, a call to justice, an awareness of humility, a gesture of solidarity, a prayer of kindness, an invocation of our better angels, and a necessary precursor to reclaim our power as citizens.
Take a knee, and then, in the wise words of poet Maya Angelou, “rise.” Rise to resist, to protest, to march, to vote, to volunteer, to dream, and to work for as long as it takes to “Let America be America again. / Let it be the dream it used to be,” as the poet Langston Hughes wrote.
Take a knee, and then stand, place your hand over your heart, and whisper the words, “with liberty and justice for all,” and mean it.
Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash