REFLECTIONS

I'm tired of words. For four centuries, this country has intoned glorious rhetoric on freedom and equality and consistently betrayed those values in its treatment of Black Americans. Our nation's ideals are just words on a paper until we the people will them into reality — with our votes, our voices, and our pocketbooks.

Progress in America is not inevitable. In fact, there are many days where it feels rather improbable, but then there are days like these to show us, it is never impossible. Today, as Ilhan Omar and others pledge to protect and defend that sacred document, we enlarge our definition of who "we the people” are, who they are allowed to be. And 10-year olds across the country get to watch us write this next chapter of America, believing that one day with their votes and voice, they too will author their own.