The polling-booth line was already out the door at 6 am when I arrived to vote. Some Bethelites had arrived at 5:15 am to be able to vote and get to work or make trains on time. The rule prohibiting campaigning near the voting area meant that no one wore campaign buttons or t-shirts, so I had no idea about peoples’ voting preferences. Even as we sleepily joked about someone’s doing a coffee run, I was aware of the seriousness of our purpose. We had come to the voting booth determined both to have our say and to deal with whatever came at the end of the day. We were Americans, awake at this hideous hour, doing sacred work. The day wore on with extreme fatigue, and I, not knowing of course how the elections would turn out, nonetheless left “away messages” on my g-mail and instant message accounts that said “God bless America.” To some it may sound overly dramatic, but I am deadly serious: except for Israel, to which I have a strong attachment, I cannot imagine a country as magnificent as the United States of America. I have not always agreed with America’s leaders’ policies, the laws of the land, or my fellow citizens’ decisions on candidates or propositions, but I am truly grateful to have been born here, and I am beyond grateful that we all get a chance to have our opinions heard.
Do I wish some things were different in the US? Of course. Even as I am pleased that the vast majority of Americans elected the first Black president of the US and that Connecticut voters turned back an effort to legislate a ban on same-sex weddings following the state’s Supreme Court decision permitting them and at the same time opening the doors to young voters’ having a say in national primary elections, I am disappointed that three states chose to ban same-sex weddings on that same day. I was very distressed that some politicians derided those who disagreed with their platforms as being not “real” Americans or racists. But these are issues for another day and, as the saying goes, the perfect must not be the enemy of the good (which does not mean, by the way, that the good can’t be made better). The US is not perfect, but it is one of the best, and one of the best is a good enough start.
This is a sad day for the American dream. North Carolina voters approved an amendment banning same-sex marriages, partnerships, and civil unions on Tuesday. It joins an infamous assortment of 30 states - and the last in the South - to add this prohibition to their state constitutions. The vote wasn't even close: an overwhelming 80% of voters publicly pronounced their bigotry. Yes, BIGOTRY. There is simply no other word for it, despite the sanctimonious wrapping of opinions in their version of the Bible. The obscenity is that the bigots invoke "God" and Newspeak simultaneously to proclaim the sanctity of their position. According to the New York Times , '“We are not anti-gay — we are pro-marriage,” Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of the executive committee for the pro-amendment Vote for Marriage NC, said at a victory rally in Raleigh, where supporters ate pieces of a wedding cake topped by figures of a man and a woman. “And the point, the whole point is simpl
Words matter. If they didn't, if there were no consequences to our utterances - good and bad - Jewish literature would not be chockablock with cautionary tales from Talmud to midrash to watch what we say. Those stories of the rabbi and the feather pillow and the broken mirror did not come out of a vacuum; they were written for a reason. Let's be honest: politicians love rhetoric and television/radio pundits need inflammatory language the way an active alcoholic needs booze. No political party has been innocent, yet the right wing has taken the cake lately. An American president accused of not being an American, "don't retreat, reload," the "2nd amendment remedies," Nazi, Hitler (briefly abused by the left against VP Cheney but taken to the nth degree by Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and others), death panels, a Sarah Palin map of the US with gun cross hair sights over names and places of politicians who were on a political hit list and a politician hosting an
(graphic: https://www.pinterest.com/serenityinhim/new-love3/ ) "With the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefirat Ha'Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of them. The seven emotional attributes are: 1. Chesed - Loving-kindness 2. Gevurah - Justice and discipline 3. Tiferet - Harmony/compassion 4. Netzach - Endurance 5. Hod - Humility 6. Yesod - Bonding 7. Malchut - Sovereignty, leadership" Daily Omer Meditation Over the next 49 days, I'm going to post a meditation from some source or another (perhaps myself) with my reactions/responses. Please feel free to share (with attribution, please), comment, and otherwise join me on the 49-day spiritual journey to
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