WE ARE STILL WAITING
By Rabbi Rick Sherwin
All-Embracing God,
July 4, 1776 – You gave wisdom to our country
To fulfill Your command:
“Proclaim liberty throughout the Land
To all of its inhabitants”
All
And the insight to create a country
With the words “We the People”
“We”
We are still waiting.
January 1, 1863 – You gave our President the courage
To release those fettered in slavery
To free the body, the spirit, the mind
With these words:
“All persons held as slaves are and henceforward shall be free…
The Executive government and [military]
Will recognize and maintain the freedom…
[that] they shall labor faithfully for reasonable wages.”
“Reasonable”
We are still waiting.
June 19, 1865 – You gave joy to the racially enslaved in Galveston, Texas
To hear and be witness to General Order 3
Confirming the Emancipation Proclamation
Guaranteeing the freedom of all who were enslaved
With “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property…”
“Absolute equality”
The divisive Civil War was over
But was divisiveness really over?
We are still waiting
May 17, 1954 – You gave insight to the Supreme Court
To see that “separate but equal”
Violates the 14th Amendment
That separation anything but equal
In the world of education,
In areas of public access, in the arena judicial protection
With separation there is no equality.
“Equal”
The law is firm.
We are still waiting.
June 19, 2021 – You ennobled our unanimous Senate
To extend the message of release, liberty, equality
Not to “us” and “them” but to “we”,
Not separate, only equal
Regardless of skin color and ethnic origin.
We look forward to the day when
There will be “liberty and justice for all”
The day when You sit back and smile as we say
We are no longer waiting.
Amen.