I noted that this week's portion in Exodus that Moses, who had a speech impediment, arranged with Aaron, his brother to go to speak to Pharaoh to allow the slave people, Israel, to go into the desert to pray to their God.  Aaron did so and the Pharaoh demurred.   This laid the groundwork for all the protests to his Majesty that led up to Passover (where the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Jews which were marked so it was the first born of the Egyptians as well as Pharaoh's son who were killed).  Some times it takes a long time for messages such as the ones directed to Pharaoh to be noticed and answered positively. 

There was a message given in the frigid weather of Washington, D.C. yesterday by thousands of people who came to a concert given in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday the new President elected by the people.  They came to give a message that the ideas expressed by the Democrats and in the elegant phrasing of Barack Obama, that change was welcome and the people were now free of restrictive laws laid down by the bested Republicans.  There was joyous celebration and no protestation.  People came from all over to be part of this inauguration and stayed despite the frigid air and oppressive cold.

Not all demonstrations are so successful.  Some take a long time in being answered but the point of this is that all protests must be listened to.  I believe that Mr. Obama is a good listener and will not be a Pharaoh who closes his ears and will not hear nor keep his eyes open so he can see that people are oppressed and people are in need.  The message given and, I think, received was that people all over the world are appealing to the Pharaohs in their lands to let them go free. 

America is leading the way, once again.  It has chosen the new instead of keeping the old.  There is change in the air and freedom is sniffed in the winds of that change.

I think that Israel which unilaterally invaded Gaza and now has unilaterally withdrawn from that devastated land links the present world to that world described in the Bible where a Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to let his people go free to pray in the desert.  Little did they know that it would take forty years of wandering until they were shown the Promised Land (owned by others) and allowed to go in and take possession. Moses was denied the honor of going with them.  He is buried we know not where and he is not a martyr nor a hero whose grave we all go to in order to make him into a demigod although he certainly was one of a kind.  His message eventually got through. Life turns out that way sometimes.