We used to laugh about ICE in middle school. Kids always laugh when they’re scared. It’s easier than asking why some families disappear and other don’t.
O say can you see…
Back then it felt unreal. A rumor. A joke passed between lockers. Something far enough away to survive with humor.
Now it’s real. Real in the way voices drop.Real in the way parents teach kids what to say…if they don’t come home.
By the dawn’s early light…
Children are growing up fluent in fear. They know how to stay quiet.How to stay small.How to listen for footsteps that don’t belong to them.
That’s not maturity.
That’s survival.
What so proudly we hailed….
People call it policy.
Procedure.
Just the law doing its job.
But kids call it the moment their childhood ended. The moment they realize safety is conditional. The moment fear became routine.
At the twilight’s last gleaming…
What kind of country teaches fear before freedom?What kind of nation sings about bravery while asking children to be the bravest ones in the room?
We weren’t laughing because we didn’t understand. We were laughing because we understood too early.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars…
They taught us this song before we understood the words. Before we learned that freedom comes with fine print. Before we realized some families are protected and others are tolerated- until they’re not.
O’er the land of the free…
Free for who?
Because bravery shouldn’t belong to children memorizing escape plans. And freedom shouldn’t depend on whether your parents make it home that night.
And the home of the brave?
We didn’t grow out of the fear. We carried it with us. And now we’re watching a new generation inhert it.
We laughed first.
Now we know why?
-A Tired Generation
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