Tuesday, January 23, 2018

So That None Will Make Them Afraid: A Prayer for Independence from Gun Violence


So That None Will Make Them Afraid: 
A Prayer for Independence from Gun Violence

26th Annual Vigil and Advocacy Day
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Beth-El, Richmond, Virginia

Adonay Elohim – Lord Almighty

I invite the members of the General Assembly to stand where I have stood, next to the weeping, sobbing parents, siblings, grandparents, spouses and children before the open grave.

I invite them to answer the questions I have been asked: Why? Why did they die? Why were there guns? Why all this pain? Why all this violence?

I invite the members of the General Assembly to look into the cold, unforgiving ground and imagine that it is not some unknown stranger, but their parent, their spouse, their sibling – their child!

And then tell me why they are silent!
Tell me why they can’t pass laws!
Tell me why their hearts are colder than today’s air and the ground we stand on!

Adonay Elohim – Lord Almighty

Just as you made Pharaoh to release the Israelites, so too, make these legislators to release the bills from committee and enact the laws to restrict the sale of weapons of violence,

So that each man, woman and child can

            Sit on their porch
            Ride the bus
            Go to school
            Go to work
            Go to the movies
            Go to the dancehalls
            Walk down the street

            In peace

            and none will make them afraid.
     
            Amen.