‘An American Prayer’

America and the world, especially Europe, desperately need a return to normal, to a stable and predictable world order, a clear distinction between democrats and dictators.

When Jim Morrison recorded “An American Prayer” in 1970, the issues facing America were different; they were accelerated growing pains and individuals confronting the visions of Alvin Toffler, Aldous Huxley, Raymond Carver and Allen Ginsberg, all different, yet relevant at the same time. They were the man on the moon, the Cold War and Vietnam. It was an era of fascination and paradoxes, but a time where, in the midst of it all, there was still hope.

When I watched and listened to Joe Biden’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, I felt that those 25 minutes were the new “American Prayer.” Now, when America most needs a prayer, it was Biden who delivered it to the nation. A clear direction, commitment, sense of belonging, the urgent reconciliation of America with itself. Biden’s speech contained many of the words of Francis of Assisi: “[W]here there is darkness, [let me sow] light … where there is hatred, let me sow love.”

Indeed, America desperately needs to internalize and practice this prayer. Four years of tension, verbal warfare, hate, divisionism and confrontation have left America torn apart, and it has surrendered to the chaos of sickness, unemployment and uncertainty. Today, Americans do not find their enemies overseas, but on their streets, in the neighboring town, in the next state. They buy weapons as never before to protect themselves from their fellow countrymen, not from some hypothetical foreign threat. They fear the diversity that once made them great.

They have returned to a state of explosive racial tension after having elected the first Black president in their history. They watch the U.S. Army, which has always protected them from foreign dangers, patrolling their cities and shooting at Americans. They feel fear, anxiety, distrust and anger because the worst of every human being has been ruthlessly exploited over the last four years, with unprecedented divisiveness. Bannon’s War Room, very well depicted in “Homeland,” is the front line of America’s war with itself, the fulfillment of Putin, Xi and Kim’s dreams, the trio that dribbles about as Trump drives America to collapse.

Biden declared America’s return to its raison d’être. He challenged Americans to restore the reconciliation and unity that have always made them strong. Vitally important at the end of these past four years, he affirmed that he will not be the president of the Democrats against the Republicans, but the president of all Americans. He clearly announced that that a relevant America would return to the world order. He was crystal clear about who the country’s preferred allies are. He was adamant about principles like cohesion, social justice, equal opportunities, and, above all, democracy.

In short, returning to a strong American tradition, Biden’s notably conservative speech was founded on three pillars that would be inconceivable in Europe: God, homeland and family. Breaking away from the oppression of political correctness, the Catholic Biden let God hover over his entire speech; faith was invoked, love reiterated, charity wished for and hope committed to. He restored the very essence of the homeland and put it in its rightful place, as a point of unity, common pride and sharing without exceptions. He again placed family at the center of everything, the root and the trunk, recalling the importance of the different generations that compose a family: the father’s example, the mother’s help and the children’s pride. A man who is not afraid of being who he is, a life, just like so many other regular people.

Days ago in a cowardly act, Jacob Blake was shot in the back as he headed to the car where his two sons were waiting for him, a five-year-old and an eight-year-old. Blake is Black and was targeted by the police without any justification. After fighting to survive, he will be permanently paralyzed.

Blake proves that the martyr George Floyd was not an isolated case, but part of a pattern that is being rapidly repeated in Trump’s new America. In Kenosha, the city where Blake was shot, the streets are in upheaval, the rioting is out of control, and heavily armed militias of white supremacists have been seen; militias of terror among which Trump finds “very fine people.”

America and the world, especially Europe, are in desperate need of a return to normal, to a stable and predictable world order, a clear distinction between democrats and dictators, between those who defend the values of our civilization and those who threaten them. Biden, who offers promise for this return to decency and credibility, has become a beacon of hope after his speech, given with conviction behind every word. It is “An American Prayer” for these terrible times.