Tiki torches, confederate flags, the KKK, police, sirens, guns. Jokes about civil wars and world war three that sting more in hearts than they do in bellies because they’re not as funny as they are real. Anger between families, between friends. Fighting on every media front, between the president and the people.
This was peace.
“As a country, things had become very tense,” Coppell High School AP U.S. History teacher Kevin Casey said. “Americans were questioning other Americans in almost every situation.”

A hurricane ripped through Houston, leaving dead and displaced Americans in its wake. Donations piled up, volunteers lined up, doors opened up, hearts filled up, no one gave up.

This was crisis.

“All tension and disagreement were set aside and the nation became united,” CHS AP Government teacher Bybiana Houghton said. “These politicians knew to act fast.”

So who is America? Can we define America as good if she is only good when she needs to be? Or her passiveness when she doesn’t see the need?

It might be easy to dismiss the evil that takes over America in times when she is relaxed, especially when that evil is followed by the selfless benevolence American’s display in times of need, as they did after Hurricane Harvey hit.

“As a country, we always rally in times of disaster. People want to help, people want to reach out to each other, people want to form communities,” Casey said. “Unfortunately these disasters are the time when people can kind of let their guard down, and actually reach out to one another.”

But it is unfair to define the country by what she is rarely, even if she is most emphatic at that moment, although some disagree.

“I think we live in such a great country, so many people and organizations have helped people affected by the hurricane,” AP Human Geography teacher Chris Caussey said.  “We always learn from these situations, and we get to see how we can always improve.  I just believe I’m so lucky to live in such a great community, state and country.”

Neither can we take her as the sum of her parts. She is not solely good but also not jointly good and bad.

America shows the inherent and, as afore stated, emphatic ability to be benevolent in times of crisis. But when the country is no longer in crisis, she all but remembers this ability.

America is a country capable of goodness, but only when goodness is forced upon her. That defines her.

What does it say about America if she cannot always be good? Can we not always care about lives regardless of their citizenship? Can we say black lives matter without fear of our face meeting a fist? Can we not always call upon cops with large hearts? Can we not always do unto our neighbors as we would have done unto ourselves? Can we not always find the goodness in our hearts? Can we not always find the reason for goodness in our world?

Follow Amelia @ameliavanyo