Quequee Gorge, Vermont

When I ran across this poem a couple of months ago, it reminded me of the intercessory prayer my dad would say during Sunday services for leaders in government. I thought it would be appropriate to post for Election Day in the United States. I’ve turned off comments, as I expect this week to be a difficult time.

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been
broken up into fragments by
narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from
the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee
into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country…