A Plea for America

It is almost the end of October, 2018 and there has been yet another mass shooting, cruel and hideous. This time innocent worshipers were targeted in their synagogue. What is wrong in our country that with some regularity now children, the elderly, are shot down as they go about their daily activities that we are all supposed to be safe and free in America to pursue? Schools, churches, synagogues, temples - is no place sacrosanct? Human life is treated with utter disregard. We have lost our way.

I do not think we can just mourn and move on. We must change how we relate to each other in our communities. Each one of us must take stock of what we can contribute to the peacefulness and respect for all in our civic life, modeling the right behaviors and the right manners in which to communicate.

We don’t all have to think the same or agree on every issue or every solution to the challenges that face our communities. But we do have to treat each other with the respect to which we wish to be accustomed. Just think how much better and stronger our communities will be, their individual members will be, if we strive to get along together.

Perhaps it will help if each one of us recites the Pledge of Allegiance to ourselves as we start each day just to remind ourselves who we are and the community we share in America:

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible
with liberty and justice for all. 

Let us renew our agreement with that solemn pledge. Let us act as if we mean it.

Condolences to all those directly affected by the shootings in Pittsburgh.