Because we
have forgotten our ancestors our children no longer give us honor.
Because we have lost the path our
ancestors cleared, kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find
their way.
Because we have banished the God
of our ancestors, our children can not pray.
Because the long wails of our
ancestors have faded beyond our hearing, our children cannot hear us crying.
Because we have abandoned our
wisdom of mothering and fathering, our befuddled children give birth to children
they neither want nor understand.
Because we have forgotten how to
love, the adversary is within our gates, and holds us up to the mirror of the
world, shouting, Regard the loveless.
Therefore, we pledge to bind
ourselves again to one another;
To embrace our lowliest,
To keep company
with our loneliest,
To educate our illiterate,
To feed our starving,
To
clothe our ragged,
To do all good things, knowing that we are more than
keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.
In honor of those who toiled and
implored God with golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God who brought
us out of hopeless desolation,
We make this pledge.