Post-Election Prayer for America
It is 5am
and I do not know
the election outcomes,
but I am praying
for a Different America.
I am not an atheist,
nor am I a praying woman,
but last night
and this morning
words of prayer
came upon me.
Dear….
Please hear my prayer.
We need a Different America
over the next four years.
Regardless of who is elected,
we need an Open America
that will welcome today’s immigrants
like it welcomed First Lady Melania Trump & her parents.
Just like it welcomed
the majority ancestors of all white people
who live in this nation.
All of them, all of us,
came from someplace else.
Native/Indigenous people
are the First and only REAL authentic Americans of this America.
I am praying for a Compassionate America
that will not
separate immigrant children
from their parents;
that will prosecute ICE agents
who sexually and physically abuse immigrant detainees —
just because they can.
I am praying
for a Healing America
that will prosecute priests
who molest their parishioners,
that will support women’s right
to control their own bodies,
that will support Civil Rights, Voting Rights,
Gender equality, LGBTQ rights,
Diversity, equity, and #BlackLivesMatter
as part of the democratic ethos.
With head bowed,
eyes closed,
and heart heavy,
I am appealing to any and all:
to God,
to Allah, to Krishna, to Jehovah,
to Jesus Christ, to Buddha, to African Orishas like Mama Wati,
to John Smith and Mormon Followers,
to Mother Earth, to the Universe,
to any and all spirits,
on earth or in heaven.
I am begging you
in humble prayer
to move America
towards “the moral arc of the universe”
that ultimately
“bends towards justice,”
that is fairer & more humble
in the present and future;
that believes in and practices justice;
that will restore Democracy
to a politics of Hope;
that will embrace
those of us
who are “Othered”
because of our race, religion, gender, national origins, or sexual orientation.
I am praying
for a Different America
in which Reparations
for descendants of enslaved Black Americans are realized;
where police violence &
violent police are eradicated,
where any police
who kills unarmed Black people,
are prosecuted,
found guilty
and held accountable
for their actions,
and jailed
like the animals they are.
And those police who treat
armed white killers
like “besties”, and don’t fear for their lives
from active white shooters, are retired.
I am praying vigorously
for a post-Trump America,
where political arrogance
is packed away;
where presidential policies are not tweeted;
where hypocrisy is revealed,
like “#theRealDonaldTrump”
who trashed science,
told people not to mask up
in a pandemic,
held COVID-19 spreader campaign rallies,
then availed himself
of the best doctors
the best science & best scientists
when he, and his family, got sick with COVID;
then continued to spread
falsehoods about science
after his miraculous recovery —
attributed to scientific & medical innovations.
While across the country,
for every day President Trump
received the best of medical care,
thousands and thousands
of citizens died daily —
with no access to Trump’s COVID medical & scientific miracle treatments.
I am praying
for a Reformed America
that will erase the false charges
against those Black men
imprisoned for simply “breathing while Black.”
Let them out.
Release them
from the politics
of racism, an unjust Justice system,
and intergenerational trauma
of the past and present.
I pray a new future for them,
and for a prison system that focuses
on rehabilitation and not simply incarceration.
On bended knee
and with humbled heart,
I am praying for America
to wake up
from its white supremacy fantasy
and accept the reality
that they will never
yield power over Black bodies
ever again.
Those hateful days
of white supremacy
domestic terrorism are over.
Let them know
we, Black people, joined by allies,
here and globally,
will resist, resist, resist.
I am praying
for a New America,
a Hopeful America,
an Anti-Racist America,
a Humbled America,
a Just America,
an America of promise & Hope
for ALL its people.
AMEN
© 2020 Irma McClaurin
