Haven’t you had those days that when you hear or read about something, you just gasp because it seems so outrageous? We hear about Russian atrocities in Ukraine and are saddened by the horrors of war, or fires in Maui and pledge funds to help rebuilding. But apart from those horrors, other events also cause us to sputter in disbelief.
This week Alabama authorities had their second racist congressional redistricting map struck down by the 11th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court, not a flaming liberal court and now wants to go back to the Supreme Court. They just won’t give up trying to resurrect Jim Crow and blocking the possibility of electing a Black Member of Congress.
Now, I’m not just some Yankee criticizing a South I don’t know. I know it too well and the powers that be haven’t changed their attitudes, only their tactics. Its state flag still carries the symbol of the Confederate battle flag. The best thing my mother did – after marrying my father – was to leave that miserable state.
Prayer for the Day
Unsettled at events in the world around us,
We wonder how old prejudices still reign among us;
Disturbed by the actions of governments and people,
We find it too easy to turn our minds to other things.
Open us to new ways of responding to old attitudes,
Enabling us to create a new community of justice.
In the name of the Model of our lives, `
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We are deeply troubled that the State enacted a map that the State readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires.
- Singleton, et al v Wes Allen [No. 2:21-cv-1291 –AMM, N. District Alabama
What happened in Alabama this summer underscores the necessity for the judiciary to continue to be unwavering in its obligations to enforce the critical protections of the Voting Rights Act.
- Eric Holder, former Attorney General of the United States
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth, on that day their plans perish.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,
Who made heaven and earth, he sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, food to the hungry
Psalm 146: 3-7