Inaugural poem restricted in Florida

Listen to Amanda Gorman’s iconic poem “The Hill We Climb,” which was recently banned from a Florida school after just one parent complained …

Transcript

00:00When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

00:07The loss we carry, a sea we must wade, we've braved the belly of the beast. We've learned

00:14that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is, isn't always just-is.

00:26And yet, the dawn is hours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we've weathered

00:33and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country

00:43and a time where a skinny black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother,

00:50can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one. And yes, we are far

01:00from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is

01:06perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose, to compose a country committed

01:15to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not

01:23to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put

01:31our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out

01:38our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else,

01:46say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew, that even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we

01:55tired, we tried, that we'll forever be tied together, victorious, not because we will never again

02:02know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. Scripture tells us to envision that

02:12everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.

02:19If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges

02:25we've made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it, because being

02:33American is more than a pride we inherit, it's the past we step into and how we repair it.

02:42We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if

02:48it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be

02:57periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust,

03:06for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just

03:13redemption. We feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a

03:19terrifying hour, but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter

03:27to ourselves. So while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert

03:39how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us. We will not march back to what was, but move to

03:47what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not

03:54be turned around or interrupted by intimidation, because we know our inaction and inertia will be

04:02the inheritance of the next generation. Our blenders become their burdens, but one thing is

04:09certain. If we merge mercy with might into might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change

04:21our children's birthright. So let us leave behind a country better than one. We were left with every

04:28breath from my bronze-pounded chest. We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will

04:35rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west. We will rise from the wind-swept northeast where our

04:40forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern

04:46states. We will rise from the sun-baked south. We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known

04:53nook of our nation, in every corner called our country. Our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge

05:00battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn

05:07blooms as we free it, for there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it, if only

05:16we're brave enough to be it.