Recently,
I posted a quote from, oddly enough, Angela Davis. It was both profound and
illuminating for me at this point in my life. She said, "I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I'm
changing the things I cannot accept."
The
world we live in is filled with violence, intolerance and inequality. Everyone
is a "ME", there is no
"WE" – there is no sense of "community." The "Values," that guided past
generations to do what is right, have been replaced with "Value," doing what makes or saves
the most money – regardless of how many
lives are adversely affected. Instead of life being the highest value, it
has become the norm to look at people and their lives as simply assets or
liabilities.
More
and more members of our society are becoming lonely, isolated, enraged people
who feel worthless, hopeless and helpless. They are being bombarded with
continuous messages through the media that tell them they don't measure up to
the propaganda models created by companies whose are trying to sell something
to them or politicians telling them what’s wrong with members of the other
party. The Supreme Court has changed America by ruling that corporations are people
too with the same rights – except for corporations how they use their money is
called “freedom of speech.” Who are the corporations “speaking" to these days?
They are using their money to persuade our elected representatives to do what
is most profitable for them, instead of doing what is good for the rest of us. Inequality
has become “the” word that a growing number of people use to describe the
nation that was created on the principle that “all men are created equal.”
I
could list many problems that we are facing today, but the one thing that most
of the share is that they are “values problems.” In order for a bunch of “MEs” to become the “WE” again, something is needed that has
the power to link us together. We believe
the thing that is missing is today are shared
core values. The evidence makes it clear that even though people may have
hundreds or even thousands of friends on social media like Facebook, many have no
confidants they can trust or rely on. Many
are lonely and living as isolated individuals. The numbers of Americans,
including our children, are committing suicide. The common response of choice when
faced with conflict and disagreement is becoming “violence.” The news of “mass murders in public places” has become
so common; the stories only stay in the headlines for a day or two. These
are some of things I can no longer accept and I am committed to changing!
Many
of you have known me for a long time through my work as a rabbi, counselor and
chaplain -- you know how passionate I am about
sharing my expertise and experience to help others. For over 25
years, I have known and studied with Jim Myers, a friend who is also committed
to helping people. For the past few years we have been searching for ways and discussing
what we could do to resolve problems like those above. We found what we believe
is the one thing that all of those problems share – they are values problems.
In
our studies of the ancient Hebrew text of Genesis we discovered what we believe
are values and a standard that have the power to bring people together and
solve many of the problems we face as individuals, families, communities, and
citizens. The Hebrew word “TOV” is traditionally translated as “good,”
but in the context of the first creation account of Genesis, in which it
appears seven times, TOV has the following contextual definition:
TOV is an act that preserves life, protects life, makes life more
functional, and/or increases the quality of life.
We
founded the TOV Center, a 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt nonprofit corporation, to make people aware of the importance of
shared core values and the benefits of including TOV Values and the TOV
Standard in their core values. We envision the TOV Center as an organization in
which people of diverse religious and nonreligious backgrounds interact through
shared core values. The TOV Center is not a religious institution. It is an
organization that helps people incorporate life as their highest value and top
priority into their lives.
One thing we know for certain is that Americans
must find a way to become “WE” again – or the future of many Americans will
only become worse than it is now. I believe the TOV Center can play an
important role in changing that outcome. Jim and I are finishing a book that will
explain the TOV Values and Standard in much more detail.
I
also envision the TOV Center as a place that provides education and training
concerning Suicide Awareness and Prevention, Grief, Loss and Renewal, PTSD
debriefing for those who have been through trauma, Life Coaching and Pastoral,
Spiritual Counseling, and dealing with all areas of Domestic Violence.
As
president of the TOV Center, and someone many of you know personally, I am
humbly asking for your financial support by making a generous end of the year
donation. We need the seed funds to fund our work in 2015.
I
know we can empower people by making them aware of the core values and standard
recorded in the ancient wisdom text that has been passed down from one
generation to the next for the past 2,500 years. I also know that helping people
who hold life as the highest value and top priority network together are major
steps towards changing the things we cannot accept.
Thank
you for taking time to read this request for assistance and for your careful consideration.
Choose Life By
Doing TOV!
Rabbi
Jeffrey Leynor
