At the 2021 US Presidential Inauguration, Amanda Gordon, 23 years old, has shared a powerful message:
IF UNITED WE WILL MAKE IT
“So let us leave behind a country, better than the one we were left with”
We too Elafonisiotes or in love with Elafonisos need to take example on the poem of Amanda.
We have an island blessed by Mother Nature: our duty is to make it even more beautiful and welcoming that the one we received
And the only way is an ecological sustainable development, and we must go all together in the same direction, without envy, without rancor.
If you weren’t able to see Gorman’s full performance, you can watch it below.
Text of the poem
«Mr President, Dr Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr Emhoff, Americans and the
world: when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending
shades? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is,
isn’t always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it.
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply
Unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming
president only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with
Purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters, and
conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what
stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must
first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms
to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing
else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we
hoped. That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow
Division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
and no one shall make them afraid. If we’re to live up to her own time, then victory
won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb if only we dare. It’s because being American is more than a pride
we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a forest that
would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant
Delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently
defeated. In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future,
history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its
inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but
within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to
ourselves. So while once we asked,’How could we possibly prevail over
catastrophe?’ now we assert,’How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?’
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is
bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free. We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the
inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing
is certain: if we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our
legacy and change, our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left. With every breath
from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous
one. We will rise from the golden hills of the west. We will rise from the wind-swept
north-east where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the
lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover. In every known nook of our nation, in every
corner called our country, our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge, battered
and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The
new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough
to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”