Sit and Watch                                                    Golden Light, Golden Leaves

Trees and Sky blending together              Pastoral Autumn Setting

Mother Natures’ Robe of Leaves         Hallelujah

Kaleidoscope of Colors                                      Find Your Own Path

Heavenly bridge to wherever                        Let Things Go

Baby in the Leaves, how Precious is that      Imagine the Smell of the Leaves

ODE TO SEPTEMBER AND BEYOND

September was here, and Fall is in the air, but not here.
Florida it’s hotter than ever and I’m going wherever,
Maybe my refrigerator,

Thank G-d there were no hurricanes in sight here. But in the Carolina’s there was great fear for brother’s and sister’s facing real devastation by Hurricane Florence that came in torrents.

The Fall brings new things and new colors and retrospection, formation that’s resetting its course, as we are recouping our loss.

We’re less than last six weeks away from Election Day

And Pray that it will bring new hope instead of dismay

September / October we’ll need to remember the work we have to do

Our responsibility to keep our communities, and schools safe too,

and the Projects we need to see through,

that will sway the tide as we begin anew.

A better Chapter, a better View

It was the hottest September on record here in Florida. Spent a lot of time in my refrigerator where it was cooler. And there were no hurricanes inside. We’ll be all right, but our brothers and sister to the north in the Carolina’s were faced with real devastation by Hurricane Florence; wreaking havoc not just along the coastal communities but 70 – 80 miles inland as rivers swelled, crested and overflowed. Our prayers and support goes out to them.

I know it’s my procrastination peculiarity, and I have to deal with it. Like I mentioned in last month’s August Newsletter, I was kinda waiting for some inspiration, some direction and it took on the form of the great Senator from Arizona’s expected passing, Sen. John McCain. It gave me an opportunity to provide from my vantage point a fitting tribute to this man who gave so much and did so much for our country.

Well, I’ve been putting together my notes for the September/October Newsletter Joeslifelonglegacy.com and Itworked4forme.com. I’ve come up with having two or three episodes that I’m finalizing at this juncture, while preparing for September’s Newsletter. Well September is just about gone, while writing this. When low-n-behold,  the possibility of being part of Tom Steyer’s Get out the VOTE Rally here in St. Petersburg, FL was announced. It definitely became apparent to me that I needed to be there:

A STOP THE PRESSES ITEM/EVENT. The man who is himself went out on a limb and who has acquired quite a following himself was joined by St. Petersburg Mayor, Rick Kriseman tonight, Friday night, September 28. I made it a point to attend at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus. It was a packed house of over 250. It became ingrained in my memory; the evening and following events that I would like very much to share with you. 

PRELIMINARIES

Registration

Colorful attendee attire

Getting Ready, Introductions

Great Anticipation

Monumental evening With Tom Steyer and St. Petersburg, Mayor Rick Kriseman at USF Saint Pete Campus, Student Union. Need to Vote and Need to Impeach with a full crowd over 250 very enthusiastic people that will take it to the next level. So glad to be part of it, will be writing about it in my blog post Joeslifelonglegacy and It worked4me. Great evening, food, T-shirts, meeting The Man (even signing my postcard). Please, Make the opportunity; we’re all in this. Roll up your sleeves and get involved. There’s not much time and it’ll make all the difference in the world, But 1st we have to make all the difference in our country. The program was to be held at the Student Union. We were greeted warmly upon entering and were ushered to the upstairs ballroom and with presented with the material signing in expressing their interests and concerns and how the evening was supposed to proceed. I noticed in the back the room there was food and other things to be considered. I put the material in the chair and went to the back where I said there was a lot going on. Yes, it there were nice vegetables, fruit, tomatoes and stuffed empanadas with tea, lemonade and water. What really caught my attention was a table with T-shirts was also pretty. So, I went over and looked at the selection put the one that might look good on me with a good the message, haha.  Got to my seat and there were preliminaries, introductions with the message from a most certainly familiar St. Petersburg’s, Mayor Rick Kriseman; also the Moderator.  After the Mayor’s introductory remarks, Tom Steyer provided some background as to how he got involved with this. He then touched on the critical issues before us. A Lively Q & A followed and the gathering left the Rally infused with a new dedication and armed with packets of potential voters that will be sent “GET OUT THE VOTE” information and encouragement. Please do whatever you can there is so much at stake. With 5 weeks left, I’ll be going out canvassing and manning the phones.

Can you please help us?

St. Petersburg’s  Mayor Rick Kriseman                         Tom Steyer 

Tom Steyer and Mayor Kriseman Answering questions

Pink hats were given them from a Woman’s Rights, Support Group member

Meeting with Tom Steyer after Rally

Signed Postcard by Tom Steyer

Proudly wearing newly acquired T-Shirt from Rally

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2^ND EPISODE: IT WORKED 4 ME

Prelude to Episode #2; Harbinger of things to come!!

I guess each “Episode” will comprise of both some of the items that fall into the bailiwick of It Worked 4 Me and a generic chronological conversation of what transpired during the major occurrences and phenomena I encountered.

Life’s really mentoring years were predicated upon my immediate family. My Dad was the mainstay trying to keep me focused, but it was my Mom’s intuitive common sense that initially carried the day. And then of course there was my teachers and peers in grade school and middle school and then on to high school. One factor that seems to come into play was that I was a preemie and a baby boomer;  as well. And my parents had the choice of me going back a year or going ahead a year. Because of the great number of young children that was starting school at the same time, my mother opted for me to be put ahead which had quite an influence. Not only was I small in stature but I was younger, and I had a try to pick up for that shortfall, so to speak. Also, I had to contend with the fact that I skipped kindergarten. Yes, I was thrust right into the fray; first grade and did not have the benefit of all the creative juices of painting on walls and building blocks for throwing but I made up for my folks would definitely attest to that. They were told please refrain from Billy bringing his toys which would now amount to action characters in today’s day and age.

There were many uneventful happenings during these years, until we moved to Long Island from Queens, New York. My folks would beg to differ because I always seem to be working my way into the “Dennis the Menace” syndrome from our apartment in Woodside, Queens. The attached Hank Ketcham, Dennis the Menace Cartoon seems so speak volumes.

This would have a bearing on the how I figured out What Worked 4 Me and what didn’t, like almost crawling out the window from our fifth-floor apartment. Did however, managed to fall out of a tree, requiring some stitches.

This how I viewed my first 12 years scouring around the Planet

In Episode #2 Prelude of things to come!!

My formative years, the learning curve predominately involved sports (baseball), spiritual, education and social, not necessarily in that order. My energy level had a lot to do with where my interests lied. There were the sports of baseball in the streets, football in the park and then at the Jr High and High School levels.

The spiritual was generally orchestrated by my parents as they followed in the new formulation of mass Bar Mitzvah Factory unfolding was taking place in the Judaic Religious decorum supported by a burgeoning Jewish community atmosphere taking hold on Long Island, NY.

Exercise is a good way working out problems. Whenever I was perturbed, riding my bicycle as great speeds around Circle Drive in our development would allow me to rant and rave to myself without anyone hearing. This was later transformed to driving in my car. Although during these times before the arrival of cell-phones talking to yourself brought stares from other drivers wondering about my mental health condition.

One of the main advents of my reaching full-blown adulthood was when my folks moved to Washington while I was finishing my college education on Long Island. This would have a direct bearing not only on my entire life, but my everyday life. But let’s not jump the gun. There’s so much juicy stuff that followed me throughout this impressionable time in my life.

In 1953 we had moved from Queens, New York to Syosset on Long Island. It would prove to be a “Life-Changer” of the first magnitude, As you will soon see!!

Thanks again for your interest and wishing you all a great month ahead with warmest regards,  and much progress with all your endeavors.

Make that just “warm” regards. We won’t be seeing upper 80’s here in Florida for another 2 weeks. And NO Hurricanes, Please

Copyright © 2018             William Sefekar

2018 JULY NEWSLETTER

This is what it’s all about!! This is what we’re all about.

When was the last time you read it out loud and all the way through,

Shame on me, shame on you.

 It should be written on our heart,

Demonstrating what a crucial part,

A signed piece of paper can play,

On the Fourth of July — or any other day.

When people stand up for human rights

And raise the bar to lofty heights

To change the course of history

And create a country based on liberty

Our Declaration of Independence speaks with a tone that is reverent.

Of  inalienable rights it calls self-evident.

That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

But we can’t let it slip away.

We have to work at it every day.

It won’t last forever.

It’s on our shoulders to make it better.

The United States of America is a special place.

And we ALL must join together with every race,

To keep it in a  State of Grace.

Will S.

As I am still overseas, the 2018 July Newsletter will start out in an abbreviated format. Suffice to say that the past month has been a major milestone in my life. Traveling to the Holy Land and Israel is a real game-changer. I have grown considerably in my spiritual and temporal spheres. However, being away from the confines of my comfort zone and computer I am a little limited in what I am able to put together. I have been writing my blog posts with Hebrew and Spanish based computers. I am now tri-lingual, ha.

Received this from one of my Face Book colleagues. She is definitely on the Mark.

This was from a post entitled, The Jew In You

Two particular replies stands out during the past week. One just happen to deal with my recent visit last week to the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. This was my reply to the Face Book post Those words jumps out at you. This is what’s happening. We better take those words very seriously the next four months to determine whether our freedoms remain intact and our democracy survives. 4 more months not 4 more years.

On a recent Facebook post my dear colleague stated, “Have to feel you and I have always taken for granted the freedoms we have had as a country. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever dream we would be in such a place to lose them all. Never ever will I ever take them for granted again.”

My response to my dear colleague was:
I found this is part of G-d’s Plan cause we take everything for granted even the little necessities and the Miracles and Wonders and it takes something like an illness, an accident or some misfortune that makes you realize how blessed we are and the freedoms we have here in the United State, it’s like the air we breathe. And this is why it takes something like Donald Trump and his greed mongers to make us realize that freedom is not free. We need to work at it. July 4th would be a nice time to dedicate and rededicate ourselves.
To which she responded, “yes sir, I agree with you wholeheartedly

I encourage each of you to use this Independence Day to reflect on how YOU can add to our beautiful country:  “America, the Beautiful!”

MARCH 2018 NEWSLETTER

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, Hallelujah

Spring is upon us and life begins a new, what a wonderful world in view

This is our time to shine, new beginnings, new adventures, new memories are a part of this rejuvenation that is our birthright and legacy: So go forth, be part of something worthy, something you will be proud of! Will S.

    TIME TO SHINE, LIVE, AND

֎

I need to temper his warm greetings with the fact that their 70 million Americans under a winter storm warning. I will be joining you on Friday in Washington DC as we prepare for our “March for the Living” Hopefully the March will melt the snow and un-hardened hearts of our legislative leaders, government officials and those entrusted with our national well-being emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. it will take a lot of joining the ranks of young students and educators everywhere!!

___________________________________________________________________________

The following March Newsletter gives me some good fodder to start thinking about this most important newsletter. I was ready to leave that it released on March 15. The “Ides of March” can be very telling so I’ll held off on that, fearful with all that is happening could even bring about a number of things to come that I wouldn’t want to think about opening up Pandora’s Box, even though I ruefully believe it is being opened with the help of “Mad Hatter”

Well, I’m going to be heading up to Washington DC  to be part of this March on Washington called March for Our Lives. It is being promoted, and the impetus for this was students, teenagers that want to be safe. Where more children, students die in schools than soldiers in Afghanistan.

Gun violence in schools has long been a pervasive issue. However, recent events have once again propelled the controversy to the front of our collective minds. The school shooting in Parkland, Florida seems to have been the final straw. The Parkland shooting survivors and students across the nation are now saying enough is enough. And one part of their rapidly expanding movement is March For Our Lives, a march on Washington to demand legislative action on gun control.

Organized by students, staff, and members of the Parkland community, the March For Our Lives is scheduled for Saturday, March 24th in Washington, D.C. The event will begin at 10 a.m. EST. Sister marches will simultaneously take place in other cities, too.

According to the March For Our Lives website, organizers behind the event maintain that gun control reform is not a political issue, but a matter of safety:

So far, March For Our Lives has caught the attention of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and George and Amal Clooney, who have each donated $500,000 to the cause. You don’t have to be rich to make a difference, though.

If you aren’t able to make it to Washington, D.C., check this Facebook page for sister marches taking place near you. If you’re community hasn’t joined the fight yet, make your own event page and start reaching out!

Organizations need cash to get things done, so join the cause by donating to the March for Our Lives GoFundMe campaign. They’re less than $300,000 away from their goal, and every little bit helps!

Show your support with March For Our Lives March. T-shirts and sweatshirts are available now, with hats, bumper stickers, and yard signs coming soon. Proceeds go right back into the event.

One big way to make an impact on gun control reform is by registering to vote and supporting political candidates who align with your beliefs. News Source

  The March for Our Lives will be held in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 2018

The March for Our Lives will be held in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 2018. This of course has been organized by the students of the latest school massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

For decades I have watched people speak of the 1960’s with longing. Perhaps because they miss it, what they accomplished, or because they wished that they had been alive during this formative decade, when a generation burned draft cards in protest and said no more war to the government.

If you are one of these people then here’s your chance. If you never thought about protesting and just are tired of our political system taking money from lobbyist and putting their interest above peoples, then here’s your chance. If you did not make the Women’s March of 2017 in D.C. I hope that you will consider making this one. These “young adults and children” without inhibitions are starting out to change the country. They have been a beautiful shining light of hope in the darkest of days. I am so proud of them!!

I will be attending this March with my mother and my daughter. Three generations of women, showing up to lend support, to be heard, to help change a broken system. Out of a sensitivity for my mother and a little fear, I will simply say that 159 years between all three of us will be there.

This tragedy has brought another huge influx of Russian Military bots. There was another purge last week by Twitter while Facebook, Google and YouTube have issued statements that they will be deleting the conspiracies that they are pushing. For those of you that aren’t aware of them, maybe that’s a blessing. For those that have, I hope that you reported the posts.

As you can see they are playing both “sides” of this. The goal being of course is divide an already divided nation. Today I watched the NRA President, Wayne LaPierre use some of the same talking points that the bots are spewing while attacking the Media, the FBI and Universities. I was personally mortified. Then again I had just seen the NRA’s “commercial” on NRATV which should have raised alarms all over the world.

I don’t think this is going to get any easier and there are dark, dark days ahead of us still. I think that it is important to take the time to be proactive in our political system, to shed the bonds of helplessness and get out there and MARCH! To remember that we are NOT the minority but the majority. That we will not be hijacked by gun lobbyist, manufacturers, and the NRA. To be with our children, our grandchildren, our parents. Show the world that we are a nation of problem solving. Do something positive for yourself, this country and be involved. The United States needs us, the children need us.

WWW.marchforourlives.com

Saturday March 24th

Washington DC

Click here for 

important information about how you can support our teens in this Social Justice effort

“Do not stand idly by while,  your neighbor’s blood is shed” 

Leviticus 19:16

We will get there where we’re going to be led by the young people because they are the future and we have to leave them a world they’re able to compete, to defend and improve our living conditions and tenuous environment. I want to inject one of my favorite songs that I like to play on the guitar. It’s on my 2nd CD, called “Rhymes and Reasons”

This is where I get my inner strength from some of these wonderfully composed songs and words of some of the great artists/writers/composers of our time.
I have been so blessed with following and learning the songs of Bob Dylan, “Blowing In The Wind”; Simon and Garfunkel, “Sounds Of Silence”, “America”; Kenny Loggins, “Leap Of Faith”; Neil diamond, “Coming to America”, “Holly Holy”. There is even room for Jimmy Buffett, “Changes In Latitude” haha, to name a few.

This is one of John Denver’s earlier songs, “Rhymes and Reasons”– The children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers their laughter and their loveliness would clear a cloudy day and the song that I am singing is a prayer to non-believers, come and stand beside us we can find a better way.

The theme of March for Our Lives resonates from the following verse:
“It is written from the desert to the mountains they shall lead us, by the hand and by the heart, they will comfort you and me, in their innocence and trusting; They will teach us to be free.”

Lyrics for Rhymes and Reasons

This is a beautiful rendition of John Denver’s Poems Prayers and Promises with background simulated pictures and messages.

Lyrics for Rhymes and Reasons

So you speak to me of sadness                           And the coming of the winter

Fear that is within you now                                   It seems to never end

And the dreams that have escaped you          And the hope that you’ve forgotten

You tell me that you need me now                     You want to be my friend

And you wonder where we’re going                  And it’s you cannot accept

It is here we must begin                                           To seek the wisdom of the children

And the graceful way of flowers in the wind    For the children and the flowers

Are my sisters and my brothers                             Their laughter and their loveliness

Could clear a cloudy day                                           Like the music of the mountains

And the colours of the rainbow                              They’re a promise of the future

And a blessing for today                                            Though the cities start to crumble

And the towers fall around us                                  The sun is slowly fading

And it’s colder than the sea                                     It is written from the desert

To the mountains they shall lead us                    By the hand and by the heart

They will comfort you and me                                 In their innocence and trusting

They will teach us to be free                                     For the children and the flowers

Are my sisters and my brothers                               Their laughter and their loveliness

Could clear a cloudy day                                             And the song that I am singing

Is a prayer to non believers                                        Come and stand beside us

We can find a better way

This link is from my Second CD Entitled: LET YOUR HEART SING OF LOVING & LIVING LIFE EVERY DAY

It probably doesn’t do it justice but it is truly from the heart.

This is what we need to fall back on because I pray and I hope that this country comes together for good and justice, and mercy. Keeping our basic tenants intact, not like somebody taking a sledgehammer and chisel and eroding the foundation of what has made us strong and is built on. Which is denigrated when somebody like the President calls one of the most reputable, highly regarded moderator’s on a national network; like Meet the Press,  “a son of a bitch” on television at a rally. I think we’ve lost all decency when you’re dealing with these kinds of situations. We deserve better leadership.

And as I said, I’m going to March for Our Lives on the Washington Monument Mall with my sister and others that will join forces for decency to build a better America; Not Make America Great with simplistic platitudes. Not with the kind of rhetoric based on lies and derogatory demagogues and if anybody has something that they think that would be a good poster along these lines, please send it to me on my twitter account to be counted in the response. There are going to be plenty of posters with the right messages, presented by the “student body” and forming a larger crowd than was at the inauguration; that’s for sure.

So if you have suggestions. I’d like to hear from you. People and Posters will carry the day. Will send you pictures.

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I listened to hear about Prof. Stephen Hawkins passing at 76 years of age in spite of all his suffering and limited mobility in being able to accomplish so much beyond the wildest imaginations literally and figuratively. That 25 of his posts and share them with you and is nice to have it acknowledged by the great Seth of the thinkers on CBS television from the big tank theory TV show they appreciated this is brilliant minds.

 Stephen Hawking Dies at 76; His Mind Roamed the Cosmos – The …

2 hours ago – Stephen W. Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist and best-selling author who roamed the cosmos from a wheelchair, pondering the nature of gravity and the origin of the universe and becoming an emblem of human determination and curiosity, died early Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, ..

Stephen Hawking/Quotes

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.

I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.

People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,

 Not only does God play dice, but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen This shows you how like minds think alike.

Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying. G-d doesn’t play craps with the Universe. Very interesting introspection or as I found out a synonym is navel-gazing. Sounded like it would fit in somewhat akin to star-gazing, ha

Stephen Hawking, appearing with cast of the Big Bang Theory

1st Pic:Full Cast and Production Crew of The Big Bang Theory  2nd Pic: Sheldon with Stephen Hawking from one of his Episodes

Like so many lives touched by Stephen Hawking’s brilliance, the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” is spent a Wednesday morning in morning. Stars made him violate, Kaylee cuckoo, Jim Parsons and John Lackey and co-create a bill ready also to social media to express their admiration for the lake, great physicist, who died Wednesday morning after decades – long battle with ALS. 76.

“In loving memory of Stephen Hawking,” the CBS sitcom wrote on its official Twitter account, alongside a photo of the stars the talking. “It was an honor to have him on the  The Big Bang Theory. Thank you for inspiring us and the world. He appeared on the series is himself seven times, beginning with his season five cameo in “the Hawking excitation” and most recently with the current season premiere last September.

“As we near Pi Day of our time,” Lilac tweeted, along with the same snapshot. “#Stephen Hawking is free from the physical constraints of this earthly condition we all exist in and he is soaring above us now marveling at it all.”

“Life would be tragic weren’t funny.” – Stephen Hawking

___________________________________________________________________________

Wait, on another thought-provoking note, I would like to share with you some of the outreaching Works of Dr. Koren. This was particularly noted from his Lecture given on January 21, 2018. With all the effort in getting the video edited and the final product which I shared with you last few months. A 20 minute version for the layman and the public will be available next month but the 58 minute version is being sent to over 1500 universities and colleges. Enunciating the steps you need to take to maintain a balance and quality of life: purer air, cleaner water and winning the battle against the degradation of our immune systems.

I am so fortunate that I have a special mentor which I could work with. He has exhibited within his powerful, intellectual grasp the opportunity to have an impact on the earth and its environs equally important as reaching out to the heavens.

Dear Bill, Linda, and CarolinA

This has just been published by the Environmental Health Section of the American Public Health Association and Will Reach about 1500 Top Professionals in the United States and Canada Immediately.

Keep up the Good Work. We Need to Reach the Public That We Can Move Ahead and Protect Our Environment and Our Health.

Hank

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Four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey

Has called Trump’s behavior in wake of the controversy insane and is questioning the state of the nation under his leadership.

In an interview with the Washington Post, McCaffrey stated, “We’re cruising toward a war with North Korea, and for eight days we’ve watched insane behavior by the president, Congresswoman Wilson and the chattering class in Washington.”

He said Trump has no empathy and that his conversation with the widow was likely a disaster.

McCaffrey isn’t the first to go after Trump following his alleged comments to Johnson. Gold Star mom Karen Meredith spoke her mind as well and told Trump to stop making everything about himself.

McCaffrey wondered what’s going on in the larger picture concerning Trump’s continues and numerous controversies which manage to consume news cycles for full weeks. He jumped from his NFL comments (which he continues to Tweet about) to this maddening disrespect of a widow of a killed serviceman; what’s next?

He just keeps lying, both in his words and from the Twitter that many have argued serve as a platform for presidential proclamations.

First, he claimed his predecessors never called the families of fallen service members, which is demonstrably false. Then, he attacked Representative Wilson for standing up for a widow he had disrespected. And now, when that widow speaks out, he’s shutting her down too, all from his cowardly place behind a computer screen.

Grow up, Trump.

A retired four-star Army general said that he believes that President Trump is a “serious threat to US national security.”

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey tweeted Friday that he reached the conclusion about Trump because the president “is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks.”

“It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he added.

McCaffrey has also worked as an adjunct professor at the U.S. Military Academy and led the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for five years during the Clinton administration.

Trump has come under fire for his response to Russian interference in the U.S. election. The president has repeatedly hit the probe into Russia’s election meddling as a “witch hunt.”

His administration unveiled new sanctions against Russian cyber groups involved in election meddling on Thursday, including individuals and groups charged with election interference by special counsel Robert Mueller.

However, Trump had been criticized for not implementing sanctions against Russia earlier, after Congress passed a bipartisan bill last year giving him the power to do so.

U.S. Cyber Command chief and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers testified before the Senate last month that he hadn’t received instructions from Trump to take additional steps to deter Russian cyberattacks aimed at U.S. elections.

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This is a statement that was in the news by former FBI official John Brennan

Ex-CIA chief John Brennan to Trump: ‘America will triumph over you’

Sean Rossman, USA TODAY Published 1:11 p.m. ET March 17, 2018 | Updated 3:36 p.m. ET March 17, 2018

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly kept memos regarding President Donald Trump. USA TODAY

The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in a venomous tweet Saturday, accused President Trump of political corruption and warned, “America will triumph over you.”

John Brennan’s biting two-sentence statement came in response to a Friday evening tweet in which the president celebrated the ouster of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

Former CIA director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in 2016. Brennan, in a Saturday tweet,

accused President Trump of political corruption. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

 “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history,” he wrote. “You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America… America will triumph over you.”

McCabe’s firing: FBI’s Andrew McCabe fired days before retirement; Trump applauds Sessions’ move

More on McCabe: In war of words with Trump, fired FBI’s McCabe says he will no longer be silent

More: Retired four-star Army general: Trump, ‘under the sway of Putin,’ threatens national security

Brennan served under former president Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017. Since he left his post, he’s been critical of the president on his response to the hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico and on his recent decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel, among other decisions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who often is at odds with Trump, fired McCabe amid a review of the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was secretary of state.

Trump called McCabe’s firing a “great day for the hardworking men and women of the FBI.” McCabe, the president claimed, “knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”

Brennan tweets sparingly and usually only to make a statement about current affairs. After Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Brennan issued another abrasive tweet.

“You show an amazing albeit unsurprising ignorance of how technology, automation, and the attendant evolution of economics and societies have transformed the world,” he said in response to a Trump tweet on March 7. “Your simple minded policies — imposition of tariffs — have the potential to seriously damage our future prosperity.”

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Thanks again for your interest and wishing you all a special Spring season with warmest regards especially those dealing with March going out like a lion.

Copyright © 2018             William Sefekar

February 2018 Newsletter

ODE TO CUPID

Happy Valentine’s Day

All you lovers of life,
As well as you lovers of the Earth
You caregivers of caring-
Give of your bounty and your bounty will always be filled to the brim.
Make sure to give Cupid a big wide angle shot to land His mark.
You never can tell, what the results will be
It will only feel like a little pinch and gives you the warm fuzzies forever.
Will S.

___________________________________________________________________________

Dear Mr. Pres. I use that word loosely, you’re not my president and more than half of the United States citizens that voted, didn’t get your vote.  Over the years there have been times that my preferred candidate wasn’t elected yet I accepted it with equanimity and endured the outcome. What you have done: You’ve made shambles of the moral fiber in this country. You condone extramarital affairs at a level that is so far below our consciousness what used to be right is not right, and what use to be wrong is not wrong. Now we delved few levels lower on the Internet today, are we condoning Domestic Violence (DV) and Sexual Abuse (SA)? Are these allegations prerequisites for WH positions of power these days? I can’t stand by and millions of men and women and young adults are not going to accept this. We can rise up and vote you out of office and all your cronies that sold us out.

All the millions and millions of hard working Americans are now subservient to the billionaires; the 1% that we were told this is what you were going to do.  This is like mind-boggling; Hitler said what he was going to do. It shatters speed records of the my consciousness and what you are doing is: Dismantling the Republic, our democracy. We’re going to tell you and your cronies in November what we think of this degradation of our environment, government and our moral fiber and hopefully will set the bar a lot higher than what you have done- which is sell us out, the little guy the man in the streets. However, we can thank the women, women in the streets who have come out to show what we mean when we say enough is enough.

Join me, in whatever organizations. I will be joining also to get this word out to show that we mean business.  This is a government: by the people, for the people and God willing, will never perish from the earth. We’ve invested too much of our time and our parents time, and our grandparents time and all the immigrants that came before us that you wouldn’t have allowed in or are sending back. Now your guidelines are strict guidelines of making what is moral, that makes you determine who is righteous and who is not. This is no way, you are wrong, you are wrong, you are wrong and we will show you how wrong you are because not only is the pen mightier than the sword, but we will show you that the ballot box is what got this country this far and the ballot box will determine and not dictate, as we don’t want to use that word because that’s what you’ve thrown at us, a dictatorship that is how you’ve gotten your way. You are dismantling our justice system and slandered trying to protect yourself by false accusations, shrouded in law enforcement agencies, and the Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ), who can’t even remember what he did 3 months ago. You destroyed eight years of building blocks to make this country fair and one that reached out to all peoples. Is this your only way: no compromise, no negotiations? This is how you deal in your world! We learned this lesson the hard way.

This country is definitely in peril, you want to “make America great.” We just want to keep America the way it was; loving, caring; a United people that that’s how we got our name the United States of America. The people sticking together to help one another in spite of adversity; resulting in the building of great a country.  It was forged out of a beautiful land that God gave us, America the beautiful; unbelievable words, believable how people put their personal interests and greed above what made this country great. Patriotism is not just something that you say or put a flag out, that helps; you work at it, you work at it and you work at it, it’s going to take a lot of work just get us back to the middle of the road where we were a few years ago.

Want to share with you something that really means a lot to me and I’m hoping to populate this in not only “What America Means to Me,” Whatamericameanstome.com but certainly it is appropriate in the other domain name website “Immigrants Are USA,” www.immigrantrusa.com. The hullabaloo recently about the president off-the-cuff remarks about people from Haiti, San Salvador, and Africa. The expression s**t hole became the word of the week, month, year.

I cannot imagine how someone, especially in this high office would make these remarks and talk about our roots like this. These are ALL our roots, unless your ancestors came from living in these pre-Colonial times. The first settlers were “American Indians” as we know. Ancestry on my mother’s side came from Eastern Europe and Russia and I recently was watching a movie Fiddler on the Roof; where their lives were as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof.  It showed what happened; how the Jews felt the wrath of the Russian dictator, the Czar. Cossacks and their cut-throats bands would periodically initiate pogroms and massacres of innocent people, mostly Jews. Toward the end of the movie this Jewish town called Anatevka,  for the Jews had to sell their property, and livestock in three days and were forced to flee. And many of them would come to the New World and as they sloshed through the night in the cold carrying all their earthly possessions in carts that they had to pull their carts in this quagmire of mud and for a life that would be much better. And I think this would certainly qualify as a s..t hole. I have the tape and  will provide you with pictures of how these immigrants lived on their way to the New World to America in the early 1900’s . As I said ,they left to find a better world here. We were so blessed, thank you America,

I’m putting some of these pictures from Fiddler on the Roof that just happened to be aired on Turner Classic Movie (TCM) a few weeks ago. It belies what my ancestors on my mother side had to deal with when they left Russia and arrived in the USA. My grandfather, William Charles Lakoff, is who I am named after. In the European Jewish communities, you named children after deceased relatives to keep their memory alive. My grandfather William, in order to save a few cents; he was a laborer and a few cents meant a lot back in the 1920’s.  So, he decided instead of taking the bus to get home from his job, he carried his toolbox for about a mile and ½ in the cold and snow in Brooklyn, New York. He suffered a heart attack and died. He left four daughters and a son and a loving wife to raise the kids. He had scrimped and saved up enough money send for his wife Bessie, (my grandmother) and three of his children; Lena, Yetta, and Hymie to come from Russia. Two of them were born here in the United States, Renee and the youngest of the five children was my mother, Thelma was born in 1920; who was six at the time. And as the story rings true, immigrant families stay together and nurture one another and build a better life from what you saw as millions of families like on my sides of the family. They left their s..t holes came to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. and many of them stayed in Europe, like Craków, Poland and faced a far worse ordeal, a far worse fate 25-30 years later.

VIDEO SNIP-IT FROM FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, ABOUT RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS COMING TO AMERICA EARLY 1900’S

Pictures taken from the Movie, “Fiddler on the Roof” about Jewish Immigrants from Russia.

My father’s side of the family didn’t fare that much better. They were caught in the crossfire of the Balkan Wars just prior to and during World War I that began in 1914. The Ottoman Empire, under Turkish rule, controlled the islands of Greece. Salonika is the second-largest city in Greece, next Athens. My grandfather Jack, my Dad’s father, was picked up and incarcerated for violating curfew during this war-torn era. His crime was trying to get milk for his two-year-old daughter, Lucia (Lucy) my Dad’s oldest sister. And after paying whatever fines necessary to be released, they realized they needed to get the heck out of there from their s..t hold and with all the money that they could scrape together and borrow, they took passage on the SS Angelina that left Naples, Italy on September 9, 1916 and after a shortstop over in Havana, Cuba set sail on the SS Mexico for America on October 25 arriving at Ellis Island. (See accompanying manifests).

    Manifests from Jack and Jenny’s sojourn to the New World, from Salonica, Greece, 1916

Something happened Saturday, February 10 as I was working on the newsletter, blog post. I regularly take a gander at the movie selections on TCM as was noted above by my interest in seeing again and taping part of “Fiddler on the Roof.” I noticed that this night, the movie was “America, America” about Greek refugees at the turn-of-the-20^th century and what they all had to do, fighting their way through to the New World, then saving the money to bring their family here the United States. This was how things went down for all nationalities and immigrants whose main objective was bringing “the family” over to America. These are some of the pictures from the 1963 movie, America, America produced by the noted Hollywood legend, Elia Kazan. The following pictures and YouTube video depicts what it was like as depicted in the 1963 movie, America, America.

VIDEO SNIP-IT FROM ELIA KAZAN’S,  AMERICA, AMERICA, ABOUT GREEK IMMIGRANTS COMING TO AMERICA EARLY 1900’S

Turkish soldiers riding through Greek towns to control peasants

Immigrants in 3rd class steerage await initial visit by Immigration Officials to determine if any on-board are carrying any diseases like Tuberculosis or Cholera

Launch with Immigration Officials to check for unhealthy people aboard ships coming into the US

STATUE OF LIBERTY FROM SHIP

Finally on American Soil

I have two blog posts: What America Means To Me, www.whatamericameanstome.com and Immigrants R USA. www.immigrantsrusa.com. I’ll be sharing with you and the other is It worked for Me. www.itworked4me.com.

Once this web-site, blog is activated, I will welcome any and all stories that I will share with readers wherever I can. And I will treat them like they were from my own family. We need to show, we need to show, how much we appreciate all that this country does for all its citizens and would be citizens. These are serious times and I hope they can be met with serious resolve.

BOB WOODWARD’S PRESENTATION, ST. PETERSBURG, FL JANUARY 24, 2018

I’d like to share with you an incident that was a last-minute thing, but it meant a lot. On January 24 I read there was a program at the Mahaffey theater here in St. Petersburg, Florida and the illustrious Mr. Bob Woodward; Author of “All the Presidents Men,” fame with Carl Bernstein they put together the book. Interesting to note that the Bob Woodward was played by Robert Redford in the movie and Bernstein was played by Dustin Hoffman it was a very memorable evening and I just happened to spend a few extra dollars to be a relatively good position, little did I know that it was five rows back from where the microphone was on both sides of the audience and I got up and made my presentation. My question which just happened to be the last question, I proceeded to thank Mr. Woodward as I said, this country and I alluded to the fact there are not only 500 people there that thought enough of him and what he’s done to be in be present in the audience, I said, “This country owes you a great deal of gratitude,” and it was very warmly received. The other thing was I had a copy of my book American Dreamer: A Look into the Life of My Father, Joe Baby. In it I showed a picture of my Dad and Mom with Sergeant Shriver, who was the vice-presidential candidate during these turbulent times and I traveled with Sergeant Shriver with the Democratic National Committee on his Campaign.

It also just so happened that working in the Radio Department at the DNC which Mr. Woodward explained to the audience was the Democratic National Committee where the break-in occurred at the infamous Watergate. I  mentioned that it was a little disconcerting going to work that Monday after the break-in. Which just so happened was the office that Pres. Nixon’s henchmen went through; part of the Radio Department.

But my concern to Mr. Woodward: “I am very disturbed, worried and sickened by what is been transpiring these past months in Washington and being a product of the Watergate era that I am really in one of my worst frame of mind ever.” I said to Mr. Woodward, “I believe that what is unfolding is 10 times worse than what took place during the Watergate time?”

Mr. Woodward, being tactful as possible agreed that there are serious implications. As a matter record, he is working on such a book which is not surprising and putting together all this information and details that he so apt to do as was stated in the program. After his response, the program concluded, and I made way to the lobby.  I wrote a very fateful inscription and again thanking him, saying that all the American people owe him a great debt which like the United States debt, gets bigger and bigger.  I haven’t received any acknowledgment, but I trust it’s in good hands and I know Mr. Woodward under the cloak of American intuitiveness is busy sorting things out on how to get our Republic righted, pardon my expression.

Bob Woodward Presentation, Program from Wednesday, January 24^th, 2018, St. Petersburg, FL

The Good Lord has invested a lot in this country and the people over the years,  millions and millions of individuals who have set foot on its shores and built this great nation of humanity upon love and understanding and mercy.

As much as I am scared as never before about the welfare of our great nation, I believe we must work harder work.  The irony of ironies is that the problem isn’t so much from without as it is within. This country has been based on not letting George do it, but you do it. I’m re-dedicating myself to try to help not just in my writings but trying to make a difference. I substitute teach and last week I was filling in for the social studies teacher in a middle school; seventh grade. Appropriately enough it was about the Constitution and the “Separation of Powers; boy was that ever prophetic.

ADDING TO FATHER-SON BONDING, DALLAS, TEXAS STYLE

I remember hearing last month that a private school in Dallas, Texas was preparing for a parent-teacher gathering and the ministers were worried that there were not going to be a sufficient enough numbers of father’s with-sons, so they put an ad in local papers and radio to encourage volunteers to come in and be part of this program. The response was overwhelming; instead of expecting maybe 50-60 over 400-500 showed up.

One of the heart-rendering stories that would emerge was a “surrogate father,” working with a young student and mentoring time with him, thought it would be good to show him how to tie a knot. This went back to my impressionable years and how fortunate I was as my Dad thought enough to teach me early on how to tie a knot as I watched him get ready for work. I learned how to make a single and double Windsor which put me in good stead in the business world, my whole entire life. And as I mentioned in the “American Dreamer: A Look into the Life of My Father, Joe Baby,” I repaid a small part of the debt later on in Dad’s twilight years when we would get ready to go out to dinner, services or were at some special event.

School administrators and the event organizer, the Rev. Donald Parish Jr. of True Lee Missionary Baptist Church, were working to have mentors for students who might not have a father at the gathering.

“When a young person sees someone other than their teacher take interest in them, it inspires them. That’s what we want to see happen,” Parish said. “These kids need all the support they can get to be successful.”

Jason Rodriguez

@DISDPD_AChiefJR Tweets

Assistant Chief of Police, Dallas ISD Police Department. FBI National Academy #260. LEMIT LCC #75. Leadership Dallas Class #42. IACP Juvenile Justice Committee.Dallas, TX

dallasisd.org/pd Tweets

Words cannot describe the impact mentoring youth can have on both you and your mentee. Powerful to see a community of fellow men and fathers come together to wrap their arms around or young men. Thank you for having me out.

8:20 AM – 14 Dec 2017 from Dade Middle School

Jason Rodriquez, Assistant Chief of Police, ISD Dallas Police Department,  Mentoring and working with Students, Dade Middle School Breakfast, Dallas Texas, December 14, 2017

DR. HERMAN KOREN’S PRESENTATION ON SILENCING SCIENCE, JANUARY 21, 2018, CLEARWATER FLORIDA

It was my great pleasure to work with Dr. Herman Koren’s on his talk, Sunday, January 21th, 2018; was a great success. Over 70 people were in attendance and Dr. Koren talked for over an hour and proceeded to make his Presentation on our “Changing Environment, Global Warming, Immune System Degradation with over 14 pages of prepared text. The video of this presentation will be available to the offices of USF and their pertinent departments. I will keep you apprised of these developments.

PROGRAM FROM DR. HERMAN KOREN’S TALK ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANTI-POLLUTION MEASURES, JANUARY 21ST, 2018, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA

FLYER FOR DR. KOREN’S RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOK: BEST PRACTICES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH.

Please try this Link for Dr. Koren’s Presentation: 

“Environmental Pollutants Danger-Global Warming-Silencing Science-Prof. Koren Lecture Prevent Early Death”

Clique  arrow to start Video/Lecture

Thanks again for your interest and wishing you all  warmest regards especially those dealing temps below 40 degrees.

Copyright © 2018             William Sefekar

Hope to meet you there

I cannot thank enough all the people that have worked so diligently over the past few years to help make this book possible.  As with the first book, Light: Courage and Hope, written with Cantor William Hauben it appears in the forward one of the title “Somebody up is there directing traffic” well there have been so many things that have happened regarding American Dreamer:.. that bears out the same premise. 

I’ve included herewith, some of the material from the newspaper that appeared in the Jewish Press,  October 6 -19 edition for Tampa and Pinellas County.  Being one of the two local authors, I really feel privileged and am looking to give this opportunity my best shot.  I will be most anxious to put this in the best possible light regardless of how things turn out, LOL.

I am certainly very lucky and fortunate to have this opportunity being one of the featured speakers at the Tampa Bay Jewish Book Fair that starts this upcoming week.  I’m scheduled for Sunday, October 29th at 4:30 PM at the Brian Glaser Family JCC. The Center is located at 522 N. Howard Avenue. This used to be the old armory and is just south of Kennedy
Blvd.  I hope to see everyone there.   

The book with all the last-minute edits will be available but first and foremost this will be an opportunity to meet with you and share Dad’s special story on how, “He Wrote It”.. “How They Did It”…and “How He Saved It.”  

Who’s The Boss

Just three weeks ago while in my garage I came across an envelope, the 4 ½ x 5 ½  inch variety.  There it was on the shelf near the entrance to the door to my house looking a little weathered.  It said “Father’s Day 2000” with a handwritten Joe; I opened it up and I’d like to share it with you.  

There was a drawing of a woman with red hair which would definitely pass for my mother and it says,

On the back of the card was the standard Greetings Workshop,

  With the explanation; “not knowing where this card came from, as  it was just sitting there in my garage I then realized it was sent by my mother of course because she wanted everyone to know who’s the boss.”

I was overcome by this and went ahead and scanned it, put it in the manuscript and it appears right in the front next to the Dedication.

Everybody Needs a Spiritual Advisor

Everybody needs spiritual advisor whether it’s someone that you can listen to, speak with or even read about. They can be your Clergy, Pastor, Reverend, Rabbi, Cleric, etc. They are people that you admire, respect and look for guidance.  In my religion, the rabbis and cantors provide this necessary link to ponder and follow the precepts that we feel are so important in living our lives to the fullest with regard to our kindred spirit.  It also makes our journey here on earth more palatable and reconciling why the heck we are here.

I’d like to share with you a very emotional and inspiring talk by one of My spiritual advisers, Rabbi Daniel Treiser, of congregation Temple B’nai Israel in Clearwater, Florida. I’ve used some of his messages, sermons in the past and most recently in connection with the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in September.  However, what transpired during our high holiday services the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah was a gut-wrenching pouring out of what happens when we are tested; really tested.  This is what happens when life-threatening situations occur that leads to the most innermost soul-searching.

The story goes like this…

 “Hearing the Alarm”

Daniel Treiser – Rosh Hashanah Morning Sermon September 21, 2017 – 1 Tishri 5778 (Date in the Hebrew Calendar) Rabbi  

For that answer, we turn to a later teaching in our Jewish tradition.  In the Middle Ages, Maimonides was one of the greatest scholars, teachers, and minds, and remains our finest teachers. When he wrote his great legal commentary the Mishneh, Torah, he taught his meaning and purpose for the shofar’s blasts.  He taught that the shofar calls to us, saying “Awake, you sleepers from your sleep. Arouse you slumberers from your slumber and ponder your deeds; remember your Creator and return to God in repentance. Do not be like those who miss the truth in pursuit of shadows and waste their years seeking vanity. Look well to your souls and consider your deeds; turn away from your wrong ways and improper thoughts.”

For Maimonides the shofar is an alarm clock, waking us from our daily routine, to pay attention and perform acts of teshuvah, repentance, at the start of this New Year. The question we must ask ourselves then, is do we hear that alarm clock, or do we hit the snooze button?

Reflecting on repentance, my colleague Rabbi Richard Levy once wrote,  

                                “The day has come to take an accounting of my life.                                                   

Have I dreamed of late of the person I want to be,

Of the changes I would make in my daily habits.

In the way I am with others,

In the friendship, I show companions,

In the assistance, I offer my neighbors?

I have remained enchained too often to less than what I am.

But the day has come to take an accounting of my life.”

We hear alarms and warnings all the time and, all too often, we ignore them.  We hear a car alarm going off, and unless it sounds like ours, we dismiss it.  If a home alarm goes off on our street, MAYBE we check to see if something is wrong, but otherwise, we pay no attention.   This past July, three different friends unknowingly sent me the same article.  It was in the Washington Post, and it was titled “Tampa Bay’s Coming Storm.” In the article, the author speaks to climatologists, experts, building developers, local government leaders, and residents of communities throughout Tampa Bay, including many in which I know you live.  And the conclusion they all came to is that Tampa Bay is woefully unprepared for a major storm. I received that article in July.  I dismissed it.  So when the forecasts first came, we prepared a little bit.  Bought some water, bought some tuna. Nutella, oddly enough.  As the track shifted, we dug out the gas cans, bought batteries, pulled out the synagogue’s hurricane plan.  As the cone moved west, I found myself thinking of Rabbi Levy’s poem again.  What papers need to be protected?  What comes with me?  What items do we as a family want to preserve just in case?  Is it time for us to leave or should we wait it out?  “The day has come to take an accounting of my life,” indeed.

We sit here today less than two weeks since Irma struck, less than a week since some folks here had power restored, a day after we watch another powerful storm decimate an island paradise.  And we breathe a sigh of relief because we “dodged a bullet.”  And yes, we did.  We’re the lucky ones.  I can tell you that right now the members of Temple Beth El in Fort Myers are celebrating their New Year at Cypress Lake United Methodist Church because their building is unusable.  Temple Emanuel in Lakeland is also worshipping in a church because of damage.  I cannot tell you where Rabbi Michael Feshbach is leading services today.  He is the rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas, heavily damaged in Irma, and we have yet to hear about Maria’s impact.  We pray for their safety as we give thanks for ours.

So what do we do? Do we heed the call, look around us and see that our world is changing? Do we acknowledge that sea levels rise and storms become more powerful because of our impact on the earth or do we hit the snooze button?  Will we learn the lessons of the last two weeks to make ourselves safer and be better prepared, but at the same can we do our part to help prevent further damage to our fragile world? “The day has come to take an accounting of my life.”

Alarm clocks have evolved over the years, from the town crier of old and the rooster on the farm into technology.  If I ask you to think of an alarm clock, you probably envision the wind up analog clock with two bells on top.  That’s the most common icon.  But we evolved to digital ones, too.  They’re ubiquitous and everywhere. The funny thing is, I don’t have an alarm clock on my nightstand.  Like many of you I imagine, I just use my cell phone.  Open up the alarm feature on my phone and you’ll find at least 15 different preset times I may use as an alarm.  Some are set to repeat, some don’t.  
But never did I imagine that my phone would be the alarm clock I heard on May 22nd.  How could I think that a simple phone call would alter the path of my life forever because something didn’t look right?

I might not have expected it for myself, but I know what those calls are like.  I know many of you have received the calls like I did. I’ve been through them with some of you. The call from the doctor’s office, the hospital, the emergency room – the alarm we dread.  It comes filled with questions, so many fraught with fear.  What does this mean?  Will I be cured?  How long do I have?  There’s questions upon questions upon questions.  Treatments, healing, recovery, positive attitude, alternative therapies, all of them are important questions to consider and trust me, they’ve been on my mind non-stop.
But this alarm raises other questions, too, questions that have been on my mind just as much as the ones about my treatment, questions that are equally important for each and every one of us.  What have I done with my life?  How do I use my days?  How do I treat others around me?  Do I give thanks for the myriad blessings I encounter every day or do I forget to acknowledge them?  Did I offer the caring hand, the supportive shoulder, the gentle chuckle to ease the hurt?  Did I say I love you enough? We often live our lives as if we have all the time in the world to get around to changing, even though we know our time is short.

Why do we wait for that alarm to ask these questions? Why do we need the cancer diagnosis, the tragedy, the loss of a friend or loved one to make us wake up?
“The day has come to take an accounting of my life.”
“I need to come in touch with my own power,” the poem continues, “ …To be a comfort, a source of honor, So strong that I can risk the love of someone else So sure that I can risk to change the world…
So long as I have breath, I know I have the strength
To transform what I am to what I can be.
The day has come to take an accounting of my life.”

The shofar does more than simply call upon us to wake up and take stock of our lives.  It calls upon us to act as well.  To act as individuals for the betterment of our world.  “The Talmud teaches, ‘If you see wrongdoing by a member of your household and you do not protest you are held accountable.  And so it is in relation to the members of your city.  And so it is in relation to the world.’  As Jews, we are held accountable in ever-widening circles of responsibility to rebuke transgressors within our homes, in our country, in our world. One chutzpadik, medieval commentator teaches we must voice hard truths even to those with great power, for ‘the whole people are punished for the sins of the king if they do not protest the king’s actions to him.’ I’m often asked if every rabbi just goes to some website to download their sermons so that everyone is saying the same thing.  The answer, obviously I hope, is no.  But today I do want to share words with you written by others.  Today I am one of several hundred Reform rabbis around our country, sharing this call in one form or another. “Today I speak words in fulfillment of our sacred obligation. We will not be silent. We will, without hesitation, decry the moral abdication in our nation that sees us becoming more divided and fueled by hatred.  This is not a political statement.  We, like the prophets of old and generations of rabbis before us, draw from the deepest wisdom of our tradition to deliver a stern warning against complacency and an impassioned call for action. We call on you to rise up and say in thousands of ways, every day, as proud Jews and proud Americans: ‘You cannot dehumanize, degrade and stigmatize whole categories of people in this nation. Every Jew, every Muslim, every gay, transgender, disabled, black, brown, white, woman, man, and child is beloved of God and precious in the Holy One’s sight.  We the people, all the people, are created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of the Divine.  All the people are worthy of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ On this Day of sounding the Shofar, may her four distinct notes compel us to respond with a resounding call for justice. The single Tekiah, The Sound of Certainty: As rabbis, we are speaking to our congregations in every accent of America to declare in unison: acts of hatred, intimidation, and divisiveness will not be tolerated in these United States.  We stand upon the shoulders of the sages, poets, and rabbis in every generation who fought for freedom.  We speak in memory of every Jew and in memory of all people who tragically and senselessly lost their lives at the hands of evil oppressors.  We call on all our political leaders; progressives and conservatives alike, to rigorously uphold the values articulated in the founding documents of our country, the “immortal declaration” that all [men] people are created equal. We call on every elected leader to responsibly represent our country’s history and advance its noble visions of tolerance.  On this first day of the New Year, we are ‘Proclaiming liberty throughout all the land’ [Lev 25:10].

The second note, the three blasts Shvarim, The Sound of Brokenness: Something crumbled inside us when we watched the televised images of Charlottesville’s beautiful streets filled with hate-spewing marchers. It reopened the wound we felt here when thugs marked our sidewalks with Nazi graffiti when criminals desecrated the mosque in New Tampa.  How much more vandalism, how many clashes, which other cities? We must not accept or become inured to some warped version of ‘normal,’ of racist and anti-Semitic acts or rallies popping in and out of breaking news cycles. Let us never grow numb to the brokenness, but let our pain fuel our vows to respond – with peaceful protests, and with public calls for healing, by building alliances and by speaking in unison with other minorities and faith communities. Neither silence, nor complacency, nor waiting anxiously and fearfully for the next wounding event are options. Not for us. The words of Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, sound a warning to us today, ‘We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.’ May we never be neutral, never silent in the face of threats or of discrimination toward any. Let us interfere as healers of the broken[hearted], and binders of their wounds. (Psalm 147:3)

The third shofar blast: Truah – 9 short notes-  The Sound of Urgency: The events of these simmering weeks are a wake-up call to our Jewish community.  Racism is wrong whether it seeps into explicit anti-Semitism or not. The Talmud teaches that God created us all from the first Adam so that no human being could ever say, ‘my lineage is greater than yours.’  But just in case we thought the white supremacists were after someone else, or that the Confederate flag has nothing to do with modern-day Nazi sympathizers, or that we were somehow safe in the fact that most – but certainly not all – Jews in America are white, those fiery torches illuminated another truth, one we learn and forget only to learn again this day: if one minority group’s rights are threatened, we are all threatened.  As Martin Luther King taught us, ‘We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny,’ whether we are the least powerful or the most powerful person in our world.

The final shofar blast: The Tekiah G’dolah The Endless Pursuit of Justice: Torah admonishes: ‘Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may live and inherit the land which I, God, give to you.’ Our sacred text reminds us that for a community truly to inherit its place in the world, thoughtful leaders at every level must be dedicated to equality and to unity.  Every community relies on passionate and engaged citizens; it relies on you to be insistent advocates for tolerance and enduring kindness between the diverse peoples of our nation. To pursue justice is to create a society that protects and enlivens every citizen.  Let us be relentless, tireless builders of that society in our county and in our country – in this New Year.” 5778

My friends, in so many ways, it has been an interesting year since we last gathered to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.  There have been reasons to celebrate, reasons to cry, and reasons to express great concern.  If there is one thing I have found in this year, it is that I need to listen to the shofar’s call more than ever.  I cannot simply sit back, hit the snooze button, and let life go on without me making a difference.  A difference in how I view myself, how I view others, how I view the world.

In this New Year, let us all hear the shofar’s call.  Let us hear the alarms others have heard and wake up to be our best selves.  Let us plan and prepare to make our world better.

Let us hear the call to action to defend the rights and needs of others.  Let the hundred notes we are about to hear from our shofar remind us of the command to offer thanks 100 times each day for the many, many, blessings in our lives.                   

Let’s not wait for another alarm, because “TODAY has come to take an accounting of all our lives.”

Rosh Hashanah Morning Sermon 5778 –

Thank you, Rabbi Daniel Treiser