America the Beautiful.
The words punch the elevator button in our memory, and trolley up freighted meanings and classroom images from our innocent years in fourth grade.
For the spacious skies of Montana.
Amber waves of grain, swirling and roiling across an ocean of Kansas wheat fields.
Purple mountain majesties reigning over Colorado.
The fruited plain of Napa Valley, seeping into our consciousness like a sepia-toned National Geographic photograph.
From sea to shining sea 麻豆精品 S� sunrises in Kennebunk, Maine, to sunsets in Monterey Bay, Calif.
But you really don 麻豆精品 S檛 have to go that far to see America the Beautiful.
I saw it just a short walk from my campus office on the night of Sept. 3.
As daylight yielded to darkness, about 400 UCF students, faculty and staff gathered around the university 麻豆精品 S檚 Reflecting Pond, lit candles and refused to let the darkness win.
We were there to pay our respects to Steven Sotloff 麻豆精品 S� a fellow UCF Knight and an American journalist who only days before had been brutally and mercilessly beheaded by the hooded cowards of ISIS.
We were there to not only honor his life and his work, but also the central principle that his life and work stood for.
麻豆精品 S淐ongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
To me, the tumbler keyword that has always unlocked the First Amendment’s power and made it work in our favor as a nation is the word 麻豆精品 S渞especting. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� The respectful way we relate to religion and religious differences听is what makes America truly beautiful. Yes, our history and present are tattered and checkered with moments in which we did not live up to our American creed. But by and large, we are predisposed 麻豆精品 S� culturally and constitutionally 麻豆精品 S� to respect the rights of minorities and those who worship differently. And that beauty was on full display that night at the Reflecting Pond.
God 麻豆精品 S檚 grace was shed on us as a Jew and a Muslim respectfully shared the same stage and the same microphone to pay their respects to Sotloff 麻豆精品 S檚 life.
Rabbi Chaim Lipskier read from the Torah, the Jewish holy scriptures, and urged his listeners to light their world. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S楾he soul of man is the flame of God, 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� Lipskier said, quoting Proverbs 20:27. 麻豆精品 S淓very single human being is a candle. Our job is to be that candle and to light our candle. One small candle of truth, of loving kindness, of integrity, of selflessness dispels a lot of darkness. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
As the rabbi 麻豆精品 S檚 words rolled across the Reflecting Pond into the night, carried by a gentle September breeze, Jaber Nyrabeah of the Syrian American Council in Orlando stood near him, listening intently and respectfully. He didn 麻豆精品 S檛 fidget. He didn 麻豆精品 S檛 scowl. He didn 麻豆精品 S檛 visibly bristle 麻豆精品 S� even as a man from another faith read from a holy book different from his own.
When it was his turn, this proud and defiant Muslim lit his own candle and held it up to ISIS 麻豆精品 S� darkness.
麻豆精品 S淚SIS, which claims to be an Islamic state has nothing to do with Islam, 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� Nyrabeah said passionately. 麻豆精品 S淚n fact, they should be called the UnIslamic State of Iraq and Syria. They are trying with all their power to hijack my religion and my revolution, and they must be stopped. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
It is these moments that make America beautiful. A Muslim and a Jew and Christians and Hindus and agnostics and others of no faith can light a candle and share at the table of what Lincoln so aptly called 麻豆精品 S渟weet reasonableness. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� They can realize, as the Catholic priest and television producer James Keller once said, 麻豆精品 S淎 candle loses nothing听of its light听by lighting another candle. 麻豆精品 S� That doesn 麻豆精品 S檛 happen everywhere 麻豆精品 S� especially the Mideast, the birthplace of both Lipskier 麻豆精品 S檚 and Nyrabeah 麻豆精品 S檚 Abrahamic religions.
And it 麻豆精品 S檚 this 麻豆精品 S渟weet reasonableness 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� this respect 麻豆精品 S� that is exactly the anathema of terrorists around the world, whether they wear the executioner 麻豆精品 S檚 hood for ISIS in Syria or they don the white sheets of the Ku Klux Klan in our country.
Indeed, when the Central Florida Future 麻豆精品 S檚 newspaper account of the candlelight vigil for Steven Sotloff was shared on Facebook, an ISIS sympathizer claiming to speak for 麻豆精品 S渢he righteous beings from Asia, South Asia and Middle East 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� chimed in to 麻豆精品 S渞ejoice 麻豆精品 S� that Sotloff was killed because he was a Jew. The writer boldly prophesied that America would be decimated because of its tolerance of Jews, homosexuals and others deemed undesirable and fit only for 麻豆精品 S渃linical trials on lethal diseases to safeguard humans and worthy life forms. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
Not in my America the Beautiful. And not as long as we crown our good with brotherhood.
Rick Brunson is an associate instructor of journalism in UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication. He can be reached at richard.brunson@ucf.edu.
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