Reconstruction’s Breadth

To reconstruct is to build in the wake of the past. It is a term that acknowledges earlier acts of construction, but it also suggests that precedent need not dictate what takes its place. Reconstruction may be an act of repair, but it also licenses acts of remaking that seek more than redress. It can be prefaced by destruction, or it can reclaim a space for other purposes. Reconstruction is a deliberate revision, a timely reformation. It is to build after, with the hope of building differently and better—even if we must always ask, For whose betterment?