Thursday, January 14, 2021
We in New Jersey face threats on at least two fronts. More than 7,000 persons were infected by the virus with 17 counties having numbers in the triple digits. Some of the infection rate is the fallout from the holiday season, but several persons are ill as the result of the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
My Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman along with others was herded into a protected room from the mob seeking to overthrow an election. In that crowded room many Republican members of Congress spurned offers of masks and although she had received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the room with people pushed into each other breathing heavily on each other due to panic resulted in her positivity.
And this Sunday New Jersey and other states are preparing for another round of angry rioters pumped up by false stories of election fraud. States are calling out their National Guard units and in spite of the much too late call from the White House to peacefully protest, these armed insurgents are still promising violence. Just think: we didn’t have to go to a banana republic for this.
Prayer for the Day
O Divine Light, that shines in the deep darkness,
Brighten our lives with the light of redemption;
Claiming we are helpless and unable to change the world,
We have tolerated injustice and violence.
Help us recognize that the real change is that of ourselves
So we can create peace in the world.
In the name of the One shows us how to love,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thoughts for the Day
More powerful than armies and police, stronger than guns and bombs, words are what change the world, and that is why they’re always a threat to those that rule with corrupt ways.
- Brandt Legg, American writer from The Last Librarian
Violence appears when power is in jeopardy but left to its own course, it ends in power’s disappearance.
- Hannah Arendt, from “On Violence” (1908-1975)
Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
Psalm 4: 1