Sunrise or Sunset?

I live near Philadelphia and have been to Independence Hall several times. In the main room where the Declaration was debated and signed there are chairs for the delegates. On the back of the chairs there is a carving of the sun. As the docent explained, you cannot tell if the sun was rising on this new country or setting. As July 4 approaches, I could not help but think of these chairs and how relevant the symbolism of the sun carvings seems to be. Where are we at year 249? Is our sun rising, or setting?

This is not a vague fantasy. The debate over this new piece of economic legislation, which will, no doubt, manage to be passed, raises a whole host of questions as to what the priorities of the USA are now. The emphasis on spending for immigration reform and defense, at the expense of health care and safety net programs for the poor, raise significant questions. That is beside the forecasted increase in the deficit, which now seems like irrelevant to a party that was once known for its fiscal responsibility.

As a rabbi, when I see the debates (if you can call them that) and talking heads on cable TV discuss the details of the bill (has anyone really read all 900 pluspages?) I could not help but think of the voices of the classical literary Prophets of the Bible who were always cautioning leadership to remember the stranger, the orphan, the widow. Their social justice was, in many ways, rooted in a search for equality and justice in the distribution of wealth. Indeed, in the discussions on health care access, our tradition stands firmly on the foundation that the society has a responsibility to provide a basic level of health care for ALL citizens.

What seems to be evolving is a society that is increasing the divide between the rich and the rest. We seem to be devolving into a society that is based on fear, fear of the “other”, people who do not look like us (whomever us may be), speak like us, marry like us etc. We are passing legislation that increases barriers: walls to keep people out or detention centers to keep people in. The money to fund these fear based responses could also go a long way to provide health care for everyone, feed the hungry and work to create affordable housing; just to name a few societal needs. You have to ask, now, what are we afraid of? The politics of fear, in the end, result in revolution.

Spiritually we have abandoned faith, faith in the power of people to see the humanity in people rather than to see them as a means to an end. Real leadership is not about parades or statues, rather it is about empathy, caring and the power of sacred relationships. Once we lose that, we stand in danger of losing our collective souls. Sunrise? Sunset? Which shall we choose?

Rabbi Richard F Address