My concern about the US political discourse has been simmering for months.  It all came to a boil this weekend with videos and commentary and photo opportunities and debate and more commentary….  I am simply embarrassed about the level of discourse and wish it would change.  Do you?

Without getting political, I did a little soul searching in the the great Jewish wisdom tradition of Mussar, values clarification.  With Yom Kippur just 34 hours from the time of this writing, I didn’t really need politics to inspire me to do this, but the disgust laden inspiration pushed me over the edge.

So I share it with you: some quotes about honor and language, the impact of our words on ourselves, others and the environment around us… with hopes that it will help us make a little sense of what ‘they’ are doing so that we can do what we need to do better as we interact with one another.

Please, print the attached two pages, bring them to dinner on Tuesday, read them during breaks in Temple, take them with you to the park on your Yom Kippur walk, talk about them at your break fast…. Please!  Please!!  Please!!!

self-regulation

Image source: http://leadingedgeplanning.com/app/uploads/2016/08/7120293_orig.jpg