A lot of prayers in Hebrew are reminders to bless (borachu) the One God who convinced Abraham and his descendants that there were no other gods, but “Elohim” or “Adonoi” or what came to be Christianized as Jehovah.  There are a lot of names for one God – the same God worshipped by Muslims who call him Allah.  There are myriad names and other attributes of this God and one most compelling and meaningful to me, that SHE is the progenitor, rather than the male, He.  But, this is a matter of semantics and you can argue all day and night about the existence of the power (or FORCE) that is responsible for giving us blessings of life, food, shelter and freedom.  We, here, in America know that we have nurtured the blessing of democracy and brought it to the point where there is more democracy today than in years gone by.  Surely, our new figurehead, Barak (which means Blessing) stands on the shoulders of the many that came before him and broke the path to this remarkable time.

This brings me to thinking about completing the task of making that blessing universal. We have a pretty good country here but it could be a really great country if we tweaked it a bit here and there in order to make it “a more perfect union.”  For instance, take the name “state”.  This usually refers to nations or national states. Countries are more or less sovereign within their boundaries.  We tried to make each of the states that made up our United States as equal as could be.  The unfortunate thing is that compromise – a hallmark of the democratic process – has us accepting arrangements that are less democratic than we would wish.  We were left with the ELECTORAL COLLEGE, a hold-over from fear of Kings and Dictators who could be raised and toppled by the mob (Mobocracy).  Thus, there are differences in states, regions and in the constitutions each has written to requirements found only there.  There should be only one Constitution that is for all the States.  I know that each state is responsible for a lot that happens within its borders but this FEDERAL system causes problems when jurisdictions rub against each other.

We need to have protections (something like “bankruptcy) which give civil unions the same protection that we give to traditional married people.  Divorce should be humane for it is common and those that are hurt most are the children.  We must protect them. We should educate these children to a higher standard than is now thought possible and teachers should have rigorous training in subject matter as well as how to teach.  The education process should be enjoyable and show a “profit” by producing a “product” second to none.

Our world is a stinking garbage heap.  People drink bottled water for fear of what comes from their taps.  Cleanliness is next to Elohim or whatever.  Pollution has been tried and found guilty –except for those who explain it away.  Let the rich keep their money but enrich the ordinary working or middle class guy.  And, don’t forget the poor – so many of them live down the street or next door to you.  Let us help Barak to bring the blessings of health, hope and prosperity to a democratic America – and beyond – to the world.