Not that the money ever went to us. Forced to work for others, we were nevertheless the logical target of popular wrath, since we were the intentionally vulnerable visible face of the oppressive system, the ones that knocked on the door, and paid the price of prince's gold with the blood of our own lives. We were pawns, in someone else's game. I write these words on the Fourth of July. Bloody it may have been, but it made me reflect on the place of freedom, and its price.
Groups struggle against one another in society, just as do individuals.
To act, and not just be acted upon. July 4th is, for all Americans, a time to think about the freedom of the body politic. Soon enough, at the end of September, will come a different time. As a rabbi, I am already looking ahead, and beginning to reflect on themes for the High Holy Days. If July 4th is about an external freedom, then the Jewish Days of Awe are about an internal freedom, the freedom of the spirit.