So, to celebrate today's HISTORY-MAKING SUPREME COURT RULING LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE, I took Rachel to synagogue tonight because I was sure the rabbi was going to say something about it. Turns out he didn't, but that was okay. The service was outside and the weather had cooled down enough to make it pleasant and mosquito-free. Rachel introduced herself to the police officer who's always stationed outside the synagogue during services, and they had a very friendly conversation. That's her latest thing -- today, on the ride home from camp, she rolled down her window and hollered, "Hi!" to a guy in a van with a barking dog next to him. "I like to make friends," she said, when I gave her a look.
The rabbi did, however, talk about last week's awful shootings at the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. -- the "Emanuel Nine," as they are beginning to be called, were at a Bible-study session when a 21-year-old white kid named Dylann Roof opened fire and killed the pastor (and state senator) Clementa Pinckney, and other worshipers. He has confessed to the crime. I edited the very first story that The Washington Post had on the incident, and I had wanted to go to synagogue last Friday for comfort, but couldn't because I was out of town for another story (although I had seriously thought of just going into a synagogue somewhere on the road just so I could feel better).
I had kicked myself all week for missing the opportunity to do that, and tonight the rabbi mentioned the "Emanuel Nine" several times during the Misheberach and in other instances, so I felt as if I got to pay my respects in a very small way.
And it was great to have Rachel next to me, sleepy from camp, leaning her head against my shoulder and in my lap.
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