Of all the emotional places in Washington, D.C., that tug heartstrings and dampen eye sockets, none move me more than the Lincoln Memorial because of the giant words inscribed on the south and north walls.

The wisdom of our 16th President makes my heart swell. The words capture the essence of the men who gave their lives in what Lincoln called, “the last full measure of devotion” in his Gettysburg Address.

He also bestows a duty upon those who follow to honor that sacrifice “so that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Lincoln’s second inaugural address speaks of “insurgent agents” seeking to destroy the union without war. He talks about his agonizing rationale for all the death he knew the ongoing

Civil War would bring. His words show that the loss of life weighed on him heavily.

Being the remarkable leader that he was, he suggested “a course to be pursued” after the war with breathtaking eloquence:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

It seems fitting that Abe’s life was forfeited along with all the poor farm boys who died without ever knowing that they were being sacrificed for America’s sins. The greatest leaders never ask more from those they lead than they ask from themselves. Lincoln put it all on the line for this country and everything it represents.

The irony of listening to people declare how much they love America while planning to mutilate some of the things that makes her the envy of the world has given way to anger, only to finally succumb to a gripping despair. We have tarnished the service of those precious fallen Lincoln spoke of at best, horribly disrespected it, at worst.

Our nation has deliberately chosen a dark path … again. No one will be able to say they did not understand that innocent people would be hurt by embracing sweeping and haphazard immigration policy. Our new normal is that government-sanctioned cruelty and bullying makes at least half of America giddy.

The hatefulness we embraced has redefined who we are and what we are about. We are on full display now as frauds. Human dignity is not something we value anymore in America as long as we do not personally know those who are being humiliated.

I thought being one of the good ones mattered. Silly me.

Goodness me

Recall all the token minority friends so many of you have kept around through the years as insurance against being called racist. You know, the good ones? Most of you fail to see they are going to suffer right alongside that despised multitude of unknowns. Some of you will have played a role in bringing that suffering about.

I have had many White friends, both past and present, for whom the bond between us is: “I don’t hate all of them. I like that X! He’s one of the good ones.”

I resent every time I silently went along with my own degradation in a way that is difficult to understand and harder to explain. Being articulate and well behaved among the whites never brought me the equality I so eagerly sought.

It usually got me put on display like a mascot or prized pet. “Honey, come over here. You just have to hear this kid. He speaks so well!”

Eternal shame to every agent of darkness that colluded to deprive future American dreamers of hope. The American dream has inspired dreamers for generations. It made people believe that anyone could prosper here if they were honest and worked hard enough.

Lady Liberty

When America is standing on her values, she is a bad chick, the prettiest girl at the party. Everyone wants to be near her and imitates the style she projects. The mean other girls fear her because she carries her power with confidence and knows how to use it.

The world now knows that while we were ordering everyone around all those years, we were also doing the most dirt. The mean girls no longer fear America. They resent the way she throws her weight around and many of them want payback.

Is anything more pathetic than a washed-up beauty queen who is unaware of how ugly she has become? It is increasingly difficult for America to bring all the boys to the yard and the mean girls seem to be planning to rat pack us after school on the playground any day now.

We still talk a lot, but fewer countries seem to be listening as the world sinks into violent uncertainty as more and more innocent people suffer.

Look around

Other world leaders are as impotent as we are at affecting peace and security. An unquenchable thirst for blood has encircled the planet. A dark shroud of tension and fear has been dropped over all of us. No one seems able to even slow the killing down.

One wonders about the teachings contained in the Koran, the Talmud and the Torah. Do the foundational teachings of those religions include mercy, forgiveness or love? Do Christians practice the grace their Bible preaches? There must be a solution that is not all about vengeance and death, but no one seems to have any interest in finding it.

This relentless pursuit of those who perpetrated a great evil has produced an abhorrent loss of life. How does that not give anyone pause? Good people have suffered in the Middle East for centuries, both Jew and Muslim, young and old, with no end in sight. Atrocities against civilians only proliferate and intensify.

A continuous swirl of violence defines life over there. People there — as here — are often born into a world where reason, accountability and hope are beyond their grasp. The leaders in these parts of the world consistently choose conflict instead of compromise and aggression over agreement.

The result has been a dehumanization of Jew and Muslim. Both sides blame the actions of the other for the ongoing violence. Each rejoices in the other’s suffering. Children cannot attend school. Parents cannot work. No one can access basic services. Death perpetually stalks every man, woman and child of the region.

Brace yourselves

That is where America is headed. We are on a collision course with ourselves. The reasons we hate each other are wrapped in so many lies they will vanish into a haze once the chaos begins and all that will be left … is the hate.

Neighbors will murder one another in the streets here like they do in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, India, Pakistan, Northern Africa, Myanmar etc. When a fight starts, you fight to win. You return evil for evil. Even if the fight starts over a lie, then you fight on that lie.

Lincoln dreamed of a future where hope was available to all. We have abandoned living up to our promise and failed to protect our government of the people, by the people and for the people. The insurgent agents who seek to destroy the republic have been given the means to do so.

Brace yourselves, this is going to be just awful.

When American-style democracy perishes from the earth it will not die in darkness. It will have been killed beneath the floodlights of history and soaked in blood from the generations of all the good ones who fought so hard to preserve it.

Sorry Abe. We really blew it.