By Sam Halpern
In the Hebrew tradition, when a family member dies, first order relatives (husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters etc.) mourn for seven days (Shiva means
seven) beginning with the day of the deceased’s death. This is the first part of a mourning process which extends to about a year.
I am a secular Jew, and the last of my generation died long ago. With so many gone, for whom would I sit Shiva? That brings me to my country, America. In a way, America is like a beloved family member for me. America took my young parents in, made them citizens, and I was born in this great land. She has given me a home, safety, freedom, a good life. I cannot believe how lucky I have been. My family has risen from sharecroppers to property owners, and in one generation, has allowed one of their children to become a professor at one of the great teaching institutions of the world.
I am America’s child, and I love her so much it hurts. If America dies, I will sit Shiva. I am 90 years old and I have seen so many changes in my country. I have seen intense political arguments arise, violence, racism, poverty, and many other things that a democracy is heir to, all these and more because our system of government, like all human endeavors, is imperfect, because, after all, we are humans.
But for 250 years, we have persevered through one disaster after another because we believed in noble ideas, however imperfectly we have tried to bring them to reality. These ideas, the ones put forth in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, were still in the midst of flowering, but now have been stopped cold.
No matter how odious our acts throughout our history, those who were aggrieved by our nation’s inadequacies have always been able to hold us accountable under the Constitution, which stood as the beacon to a stronger democracy and a better society.
We have always accepted that America is about its people and that the people will support our Constitution. We felt assured that the three branches of our government
(legislative, executive and judicial) would protect us through their checks and balances.
Suddenly, this constitutional order is being taken apart by the executive branch, unchecked by the legislative and judicial parts of our great government. The laws of the nation are being defied by Donald Trump and those whom he has directed to do his bidding. Americans no longer function as many voices within a constitutional democracy. We have become sheep, driven by this President who believes himself a dictator. An obscenely wealthy oligarchy now tells our people what to think and uses their access to power to plunder the nation’s treasury of material and human resources.
The people – in all our diversity of origins and outlook – are no longer the purpose of America.
Our democracy is rapidly going from greatness to a shadow of what it was created to be. I dread the thought that I will live to sit shiva for this great Constitutional
Democracy.
Sam Halpern is a resident of Point Loma.
