Tomorrow I will walk through foreign lands without shame.
I will meet the eyes of other human beings in new openness.We will share what different lands and cultures have given us.
We will learn what can be realized eye to eye and heart to heart.They will, perhaps slowly at first, begin again to trust.
I can already see it in their eyes as they open to meTo my culture, my country, my people, my language, my look.
We will find and repair that easy delight in differences and samenessThat has always greeted me in far off lands.
And I will walk through foreign lands tomorrow without shameCarrying the pride we used to feel when our world was fresh,
Celebrating our eager, bounding puppy called 'America' again.And I will trust that wherever I go, I will be well met - tomorrow.
Please don't silence me tonight with predictable analyses of doom.
Tonight I am deep within the experience of rebirth and wonder
As I move with my country to cast off the rightful hatred and fearThat the world has felt toward us, in our decade of despicable atrocity.
Please don't challenge my optimism with socio-politico, religious, genderist cultural complaints tonight.
For I want to feel America's new hope that is shining forth so bravely.
I want to spend a moment in these horrific times and fearsTo roll in the clover of a new spring day of clear beginnings.
Listen! It may be real. It may be really happening.
And maybe it is hard to cast off years of thickened armorTo come out from under rocks and emotional foxholes
But I know that if hope lives at all, to have hope in anythingWe must let go of our conditioning of fear and shame
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