A time for repentance by Carol Wolman

A time for repentance by Carol Wolman

We are still in the High Holy Days, and in the first week of Ramadan.  It is a time for self-examination and repentance.

George W. Bush is quickly becoming a scapegoat for all that is wrong with America.  How much has gone wrong is detailed in a British newspaper, which asks "Is this the death of America?"   http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16223364%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=is%2dthis%2dthe%2ddeath%2dof%2damerica%2d-name_page.html

 

And while Bush has much to answer for, and should be evicted from office at once, along with Cheney, the cabinet, and the top Republican leadership of Congress, this is the time for self examination.  Americans live in a representative democracy, with ultimate authority vested in "we, the people".  We need to ask ourselves some hard questions:

 

1) What have we done, or what has been done in our name and with our tax dollars, to the people of Iraq?  Have we fully grasped the horrors which we have inflicted on these people, who have never harmed or threatened us?  How can we repent, show our repentance, make amends?

 

2) By allowing our government to ignore the Kyoto treaty, what have we done to the earth's climate?  Are we responsible for the icecaps melting, the fiercer hurricanes, the killer heat waves? 

 

3) By remaining dependent on automobiles and gasoline, how have we contributed to Bush's hegemony?

 

5) Have we fully accepted responsibility for the actions of our government?  Are we exercising our full citizenship rights and duties to vote and make sure the voting process is honest, and to make sure that our representatives truly represent us, rather than being bought by corporations?

 

4) We need to ask ourselves if we know a truth which, if revealed, might get us in trouble, but which has contributed to the general decay of American society?  Do we know something about 9-11?  rigged voting machines?  the inside workings of FEMA during Katrina?  Have we adequately supported the brave whistleblowers who have stepped forward? 

 

5)  We may  write a lot on the internet about the need for change, and perhaps make donations to political/ecological/charitable organizations, but are we working for change on the street?  Going to meetings, tabling, leafletting, lobbying, educating our neighbors?  Working person to person?

 

6) Have we lost faith in God who loves us?  Have we allowed Bush and the other Pharisees and false prophets to make us totally cynical and fatalistic?  If we don't believe in God, or a human oversoul that carried all our good qualities of love, mercy, intelligence, a sense of justice, or our own will to live as expressed in our DNA, which has brought us this far- if we have lost faith in ourselves and the higher self that guides us, what hope do we have?

 

It is a time for repentance, for acknowledging our faults and asking God to help us do better.  Let us take advantage of it.

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman

 

 

 

 

Luke 11: 29While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,  “This generation is an evil generation;