In service to your fellow man...

If you don't know who Eboo Patel is, you should catch up on him. He runs an organization called Interfaith Youth Corp, and he is a Muslim man leading interfaith efforts and youth empowerment.

Today he quotes Obama's Cairo speech, the power of service, and the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Obama:
"Indeed, faith should bring us together. That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Interfaith dialogue and Turkey's leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations. Around the world, we can turn dialogue into Interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action - whether it is combating malaria in Africa, or providing relief after a natural disaster."

Patel:
Years ago, King spoke of inter-racial bridges, and a generation built them.

Today, Obama's job is to speak of building interfaith bridges of service. It is our job to build them.
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I read Reagan's speech today on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day:

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

"One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for..."

I wonder how many people still believe this. A lot, I am sure; I am not one of them. The suffering of humanity is worth dying for; but the autonomy of my country, or a form of government? It seems to me to cheapen the sacrifice they made to say it was love of country that made them do it.

I recently read the book "Let Me Stand Alone" by Rachel Corrie, who was a young activist who went off to Palestine and was run down by a bulldozer by the Israeli Army as they continue to grab land that is not theirs and tear down Palestinian homes. The Israeli army claimed they didn't see her and brought no charges.

She had a fire inside of her that made it impossible for her not to do something. She stood between the Israeli army and families she lived with, those who were losing their homes, and still felt guilty because she could walk away, because she could get through checkpoints that they could be denied.

It's horrifying that she was killed, but what she was doing is worth dying for.

A jumble of thoughts on a Friday night.