The country we need to create

(Children’s Defense Fund) – At a moment of so much uncertainty over where our nation is headed and what national unity really means, I return again to the wise words of my late friend Dr. Vincent Harding, the revered historian, theologian, social justice activist, and visionary who never lost sight of the “beloved community” his dear colleague Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed our nation and world could become. Related Stories At a Children’s Defense Fund conference town hall on his 81st birthday, Harding told us he believed America was a wounded nation, but despite so many years of struggle, he remained convinced America could and must get better. He urged all of us to commit ourselves to healing America and making our country what it should be and shared a line he had heard a West African poet recite, “I am a citizen of a country that does not yet exist.” The poet was speaking about his homeland, which was going through political turmoil on the road to independence. But my dear brother Harding said it also applied to our national spiritual and moral crisis in America, “We are citizens of a country that we still have to create...