Monday, July 2, 2012

The Invisible Wall

The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein - read in 2012. Love, love, love this book. It's a memoir about a street in London. There was a Jewish side and a Christian side. And you guessed it, an invisible wall between the sides. The author wrote his 1st book (this one) when he was in his 90s. Amazing. I loved the book. I highly recommend it.

It has been especially pertinent to me now, with the Constitutional Amendment vote (May 8th 2012 in North Carolina). This is the marriage amendment. There is one side. And the other. Different from the book though, the wall between the two is quite visible. Yard signs stolen. Property damaged. Harsh words spoken. Human nature, my friends. That's human nature. It's not been pretty. And it's been both sides doing the damage. It has been sad to see people who I've thought were loving and caring be so mean to someone else just because they have a different opinion and vote on an issue. 

When reading this book, I expected to read about the wall between the two religions. After all, it was Europe near the time of WW1 and WW2. However, things haven't changed much have they. People are still disrespecting the other side. On both sides of the issue. Here's my soap box. I have my reasons to vote the way I will. And the opposite side has their reasons for voting the way they do. While I don't agree with their stance, I certainly respect their opinion and their right to it. And I expect the same. Just like you don't have to explain to my why you are choosing to vote the way you do, I don't need to explain to you.

I've heard this a lot: You're not a real Christian if you vote for this amendment. Yikes. I've also heard this: If you really know Jesus, you would vote against this amendment. Another yikes. This vote is not a litmus test for faith. People of all faiths are voting both for and against.

Thousands of Americans have given their lives so that we all can have our own opinion while in the voting booth. This is America. Respect one another's opinions. Vote your conscious. And I'll vote mine. I'm off the soap box now.

Back to the book. It's a great book and as you can tell from the above paragraphs, pertinent to today as well as back then.

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