The vision of an America coming together after 9-11 was short lived, first turning into Islamophobia and then into the old nativist streak this country has always experienced after a crisis. We saw it in the part of the Patriot Act that required men from countries that were predominantly Muslim having to register with the new Department of Homeland Security created by Congress and the tanking of immigration reform.
But over the last 25 years something more insidious developed in American society: the unbridled drive for wealth and government favoritism toward the wealthy, primarily through taxation policy. We ended up depending on undocumented labor paying taxes into Social Security to keep the fund afloat, exempting those who earn over $184,500.
Our misguided foreign policy, if you could call it that, with unnecessary wars resulted in frustration, anger, and more division at home, and ultimately in the political, not to mention sociocultural situation, today. To say we need a reset is an understatement. The question is where that reset will take us, on the road to a more inclusive America or one that is more bitterly divided.
Prayer for the Day
The day is over, now to begin a new one, O God,
One full of memories but still with regrets;
Searching deep inside ourselves, we wonder, O Lord,
How we will move into this time full of hopes and fears.
We beseech you, O Holy One, to guide us in our journey,
As we strive to be your people responding to our call.
In the name of the One who is our guide,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In every community there is work to be done. In every nation there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it.
Marianne Williamson
This world of ours … must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Dwight David Eisenhower, President (1890-1969)
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12