We Mourn Today

The last couple of days have been a serious roller coaster.

Let's start with the stuff that's happening in America:

This past week, the SCOTUS ruled that police officers need a search warrant to go through people's cell phones. This is a big civil rights win.
However, what's making more of a splash is the 9-0 decision that buffer zones around abortion clinics are considered unconstitutional under the first amendment. 
Also making news is 5-4 decision that employers have the right to limit the kind of health care their employees receive.  This effects contraceptives of course (Hobby Lobby is the example here.) However, this also effects health care in lots of other ways:

 So America, I'm worried about you.  I hope that some day soon, you'll be a place where I would be proud and able to raise a daughter.

Now about Israel. I have a lot, a LOT of feelings about what's happening in Israel right now. I am so sad to hear of the loss of three teenagers on their way home from school. I can't imagine how their parents and family feel. My prayers go out to them as they deal with their harsh new reality.

I do recognize, however that there is much more than just this happening here. There are layers of this issue that go so far back and so many human rights have been disregarded. I'm not going to extrapolate on my personal feelings regarding this issue, because I haven't quite figured that all out. Basic human rights, however, are imperative for ALL people. B'tzelem Elohim (ALL people are made in the image of God.) I pray we can live in a world where people can respect each others differences and coexist peacefully.
I'm constantly surprised and intrigued by the situation here. We, as young Jews, are fed a consistent line that Israel is perfect and the things we hear in the news are biased against the country. I am learning, really learning, what the truth looks like here for the first time. I feel like someone pulled off my rose colored glasses and I'm seeing clearly for the first time. I have a LOT more to learn and more to find out and discover here. I don't know that I'll ever have the answers, but as a professor recently said to us, I'm learning what it means to become "comfortable with the uncomfortable."