BEING WHO WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO BECOME

Lucille Clifton, a treasure of American poetry reads her poem “Wednesday” about citizenship in our country as it exists today. She is quoted here about how she sees her poetry as connected to our history:“One thing poetry teaches us, if anything, is that everything is connected,” Clifton said. “There is so much history that we have not validated.”Because Americans Who Tell the Truth is a project that reflects upon and reminds us of the citizens here who pushed toward the ideals of our country, I thought this a good poem to consider now. Who and what is an “American?”What do your students believe about that?http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124113507&ft=1&f=1032 Wednesdayby Lucille CliftonThis is not the time, I think, to note the terrorist inside who threw the brick into the mosque.This is not the time to note the ones who cursed God’s other name; the ones who threatened they would fill the streets’ with Arab children’s blood.This is not the time, I think ,to ask who is allowed to be American.AmericaAll of us gathered under one flag praying together safelyWarmed by the single love of the many-tongued God.