(From the synagogue invasion in Texas yesterday, we learn — yet again — that trading in hate offer a poor return on investment.)

Three years ago, in 2018, the late honorable John Lewis wrote :

Of all the gifts given us by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I think the greatest has been the belief in society’s ability to change and the power each of us has to affect that change. I am just one man whose life was altered by this conviction. There are thousands, tens of thousands of others. Add us all together, and you have a nation reborn.

I suggest that there are hundreds of thousands, millions of us — believers in society’s ability to change and believers in each of us having the power to affect that change. However, there are forces in this country acting to make it difficult for many of those believers — voters, all — to exercise their power.

It feels as though we as a society, we as an aggregation of tenuously united states, are waging war against ourselves, against our common better interests.

Mr Lewis continues: It is disappointing that many of Dr. King’s battles remain to be won, that we have not yet laid down the burden of racism, the burden of discrimination, that there is too much violence. It is disappointing that the Congress is walking away from the poor and disenfranchised.

Three years later, little has changed; if anything, the burdens of racism, discrimination, violence, disenfranchisement have become heavier. The repercussions of shrinking opportunities will long reverberate throughout America.

We look to God for guidance, we look to God for strength. And we must look to one another for encouragement, for inspiration.

The Psalmist writes, “You, God, open Your hand and satisfy every living thing.” (Ps 115) Dear God, open Your hand. And open our eyes and open our hearts.

Open our eyes that we may see beyond ourselves. Open our hearts that we may generously create the community we would like to become, a community in which we are free to express our individuality and enjoy the fruits of our labor even as we serve our common good. These things are not incompatible with each other.

Every morning in Jewish prayer, we thank God for having given us the brains to figure things out. We must give ourselves the courage and determination to use that God-given knowledge, wisdom and understanding to be the power that effects and affects change.

Dr. King’s battles — America’s battles — remain to be won.