Just War

Each day of school brought about the same ritual. Within the first 15 minutes of school, from 1996-2009, I pledged my allegiance to the United States. Monday through Friday, regardless of weather or my temperament, I gave an oath of loyalty to my home country. I want to bring attention to the final three words of the pledge, "justice...for...all." Year after year these final three words spoken with candor and naivety, as only a child can do, fermented into cynicism. This phrase reminds me of the incongruency of the word and deed of the United States. How long have black people, Americans, before me recited this empty promise? I am generations removed from them, yet I am meandering through the same paradoxical experience. When will we all receive justice? The only consequence the murderer of Philando Castile received is to live with the variable amount of guilt his conscious will provide. Despite attempts at reconciliation, the prior step of justice remains to be seen. The United States government contirbuted to creating false narratives of extremism, on behalf of patriotism, emboldening (at least to some degree) jingoistic men to murder in the cause of national secuirty, which is a characterisitc of war. America in veiled attempts wages war on my people and the soldiers who carry out murder are seldom convicted of any wrongdoing. The list of black causalties continues to increase, from active violence and passive neglect. The war is real and if this country remains as it has been, more of my people will join the fraternity of American martyrdom. There is no justice...just war.