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I'm Major Jackson, and this

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. On a Saturday morning group Zoom call, I wore my Philadelphia Phillies cat. A friend almost choked on his coffee confusing my red hat for MAGA hat.

It made for a funny exchange where I unapologetically claimed my belief in the ideals of America, but no. I am a different kind of Patriot.

America is defined by its belief in equality, freedom, liberty, opportunity, and justice,

but maybe even more by its betrayal of those principles and then it struggled to recommit to values

we hold self-evident. Like the speaker in today's poem, I possess a perennial hope.

America someday will fully claim without rancor the rich humanity that is between its shores.

Meanwhile, we need accountable poems that contain our promise that is binding and loving.

I am waiting by Lawrence Firlingetti.

I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting for a

rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone to really discover America and whale.

And I am waiting for the discovery of a new symbolic Western frontier.

And I am waiting for the American eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right.

And I am waiting for the age of anxiety to drop dead.

...