The Energizer Rabbi in her borrowed, decorated wheelchair and her family

Happy Independence Day. I am proud to be an American. I happen to love the 4th of July. It gives us the opportunity to pause as a nation and reflect. It is a holiday that all of us can participate in–Jew, Gentile, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, families of ancestors who came over on the Mayflower and those who will become American citizens today.
It is a day filled with ritual that we can all participate in. Who doesn’t love a parade, a picnic, a fireworks show? I am delighted that my congregation will have a large presence in today’s Elgin parade. And despite being told I could not walk (pesky infection), I found a wheelchair, courtesy of Provena Health and the chaplain there. We will decorate the wheel chair and Simon and Sarah will take turns pushing it. This kind of interfaith collaboration is exactly why I am proud to be an American, and why interfaith dialogue is so important to me.
But what about this quote? It is on the Liberty Bell. It comes from Leviticus 25:10. THe National Park Website for the Liberty Bell explains that through the years the inscription has meant different things to different people. When the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly commissioned the bell, he wanted a Biblical verse to represent the ability of the citizens of Pennsylvania to choose their own religion. It is where the principle of freedom of religion came from and led to the plank in the Bill of Rights separating church and state. It was first called The Liberty Bell by the abolitionistsin the 1830s who adopted the bell as the symbol of their cause. After the Civil War it travelled throughout the United States to help heal the rifts from the war. Women suffragettes uses it as a symbol to help get women the right to vote.

Our country is not perfect. It wasn’t in the days of John Adams, Sam Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere. It wasn’t under Abraham Lincoln. It wasn’t when women had to fight for the right to vote. It wasn’t during the 60s when blacks did not have the same rights as whites and the country was again split by whether to participate in the Vietnam War. It is still not perfect. Last week we saw two rulings by the United States Supreme Court. Striking down DOMA makes sense to me. Striking down the Voters’ Rights Act did not. There is still much work to be done. More on that in another post.

When I got to the parade, I had to be pushed a long way. I am not used to being in wheelchair. It is a very different perspective to see life from the seat of a wheelchair. I could see many more details than I can see either walking or in my car. I could also see people move to make room for me, police officers stop traffic for “Wheelchair”, the bumpy bumps that help blind people identify that they are at the end of a block about to enter a street. I am grateful for the American with Disabilities Act. Elgin turns out to be very handicapped accessible. Elgin is also very diverse. Congregation Kneseth Israel’s vision statement has a plank, embracing diversity. We most certainly did that yesterday. We marched as Jews and as non-Jewish partners. We appear white, black, multi-racial and I added to that diversity by being in my wheelchair. It was the only one we saw in the parade.

I am proud to be an American and I am proud to be a Jew. I am glad we live in Elgin where  my participation in an American tradition was possible and easy.