Saturday - posted on Sunday morning - Rosh Hashanah and saying goodbye RBG

 

 Today is the second day of Rosh Hashanah. For those who don't know, this is the Jewish New Year. In Israel it is one day, in the diaspora it is two days but some streams of Judaism only take one day. It is the time of year when many if not most Jews, whether they are religiously observant, believers, or not, take some time to reflect on their lives and the live of their community, in both the broad and narrow sense. Yesterday was the first day of a ten day period concluding with the blowing of the shofar at the end of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I am not a religious person, though many people I know think I am because I am a regular attendee at services on the Sabbath. I won't go into my reasons for this because my reasons are my own and in this matter I don't care much what others think. 

I do believe taking time to reflect on oneself, on one's life and that of our communities and the world is a good thing, without regard to religious commandment. I also believe that believing in a religion is more than simply mouthing the words or going through the motions. Wrapping oneself in the mantle of religious orthodoxy of any religion without acting out the precepts of the religion both internally and externally, is hypocrisy. In our leaders, hypocrisy seems to be the norm, but the levels to which some carry it, are simply breathtaking. 

Since I don't believe, I see myself as both a neutral arbiter and an outsider when it comes to judging just how revolting the lies of our political leaders are when it comes to their self-promotion of their own religiosity. Do I need to name examples or can you picture some people without my naming them?

I write this now thinking about the passing on Friday of the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Reflecting on her years on the Supreme Court and looking at the eight men and women with whom she served, I see a level of honesty, perhaps even righteousness among most of them, even those with whom I disagree. To name one, Chief Justice John Roberts, with whom I certainly have political differences, and with whom I differ philosophically. I look at him and I see a man who has taken the importance and pivotal nature of his position as one that cannot be bought or sold by any one side. He makes an effort in his voting and his opinions to put his personal, non-legal biases to the side and decide based on the merits of the case in front of him as a matter of law, of precedent and constitutionality. Again, I don't always agree with him, but I don't feel he is so doctrinaire that his vote will be predictable.

I feel that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was like this, too. She might have been predictably liberal in her outlook and statements but her votes and her decisions  could be reliably weighed on the scale of justice and that scale would be close to balanced. I cannot say the same for Justices Alito and Thomas, both of whom seem to have a view that they understand what was going on inside the minds of those who wrote the Constitution, and those who amended it where there were problems, and that those minds were in perfect concord with their doctrinaire beliefs.

In our current political environment I fear where things will go over the next several weeks but I need to keep working for what see as right and hope enough people who are open to hearing opinions from all sides  without making death threats, keep working to bring some order out of our current chaos. 

These photos were taken about a year ago on Park Ave. and decending into Grand Central Terminal from the north entrance. It's about going home pre-pandemic.

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