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The great Jewish scholar and teacher Rabbi Heschel wrote this:

The beginning of faith is not a feeling for the mystery of living or a sense of awe, wonder and amazement. The root of religion is the question of what to do with the feeling for the mystery of living, what to do with awe, wonder and amazement…Religion begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us…It is in that tense, eternal asking in which the soul is caught and in which (our) answer is elicited.

Something is being asked of us. Last week the obituaries of two extraordinary people appeared in the Washington Post. I’d like to read briefly from each of them.

Obituaries of Tom Bratten and Elizabeth Kasulis Padilla, June 30, 2005

Washingtonpost.com
Capt. Thomas E. Bratten Jr. Dies; Veterans' Activist

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 30, 2005; B06

Thomas E. Bratten Jr., 61, one of Maryland's most highly decorated veterans, a longtime veterans' advocate and the former Maryland secretary of veterans affairs, died June 22 of complications from diabetes. A Montgomery County resident from 1970 to 1988, he lived in Garrett County from 1988 until his death at his home in Friendsville.

On May 28, 1970, Capt. Bratten, an Army artillery liaison officer in the Americal Division, was in a helicopter in Vietnam with his battalion commander, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, when they received word that a U.S. infantry platoon was pinned down in the midst of a minefield and that there had been casualties. Schwarzkopf ordered the helicopter to land and aid the wounded. Capt. Bratten was cutting a sapling to use as a makeshift litter to evacuate a wounded soldier when a land mine blew up in his face.

Schwarzkopf, also wounded in the explosion, helped rush the severely wounded officer to the waiting helicopter for medical evacuation to Chu Lai. Capt. Bratten lost his left arm, left leg and parts of his right hand and suffered serious head injuries. For more than three years, he underwent surgeries and rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

During his recuperation, Capt. Bratten resolved to dedicate his life to helping veterans. "The good Lord gave me the will to survive," he was quoted as saying when he was named the Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year in 2002. "I don't want to ever see veterans do without when they have a justifiable claim for benefits. Veterans want good health care, a place to be buried and a good veterans' home if they need it. My goal is to serve."

In acknowledgment of that service, more than two dozen grizzled Vietnam veterans in faded fatigues on Harley-Davidson motorcycles accompanied Capt. Bratten to his final resting place June 27 in the Maryland Veterans Cemetery at Rocky Gap, near Cumberland. A black Harley hearse bore the flag-draped coffin.

Another Vietnam veteran he assisted during his long rehabilitation was his old commanding officer. In his 1992 autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero," Schwarzkopf recalled checking into Walter Reed for spinal surgery in 1971 and being greeted by "a big, dark-haired jovial southerner." He hadn't seen Capt. Bratten since the day the young officer had nearly died six years earlier.

"Whenever I became depressed and withdrawn, [Bratten] would shake me back to reality," Schwarzkopf wrote of his convalescence at Walter Reed. "He'd come over to my bed and say, 'Sir, if I can walk with just one leg, how come you can't walk with two?"

Capt. Bratten, blessed with a bountiful sense of humor, could be funny or tough, whatever it took to keep fellow patients in the "Snake Pit," the area for veterans undergoing rehabilitation, from falling into despair. He also led cohorts, in wheelchairs and on crutches, on late-night sorties to D.C. bars and clubs; when hospital authorities discovered their stealth missions and objected, their retort was: "What're you going to do, ship us back to 'Nam?"

Thomas Bratten was born in Louisville less than a year before his father was killed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He graduated from high school in 1961 and enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1963. He later attended Officer Candidate School. He went to Vietnam in February 1970 and was wounded three months later. Among his many decorations were the Silver Star, Bronze Star with V Device, Purple Heart and Air Medal.

He received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1975 and a master's degree in public administration in 1979, both from American University. He also was a certified counselor in post-traumatic stress disorder and a member of various veterans groups.

After working for several state agencies, he became the chief administrator of the Maryland Veterans Commission in 1992. His duties included administering the state's veterans benefits and claims assistance program. In 1999, Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) named him Maryland's first secretary of veterans affairs. He retired in 2003. Active in politics, he served as chairman of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County and, later, in Garrett County.

Capt. Bratten's marriages to Sherry Bratten, Linda Sue Poff Bratten and Susan Tracy Bratten ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of three years, Linda L. Bratten of Friendsville; a daughter from his second marriage, Dee Ann Bratten of Indianapolis; two daughters from his third marriage, Sharon L. Bratten of Germantown and Kristen T. Bratten of Silver Spring; two stepchildren from his second marriage, Jeffrey W. Tracy of Mount Airy and James R. Tracy of Edgewater; his stepfather, Raymond C. Mittel of Louisville; two half brothers and a half sister; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Holidays are days of rest. In our religious traditions, holidays are what we call Sabbath time. Sabbath is about rest and it is also about reflection. Rabbi Heschel wrote:

In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where (we) may enter a harbor and reclaim (our) dignity…The island is the seventh day, the Sabbath, a day of detachment from things, instruments and practical affairs as well as of attachment to the spirit.

Whether we observe Sabbath on Sunday, or Friday evening through Saturday evening as our Jewish friends do, or on Saturday as our Adventist friends do – it is a time set aside to stop doing and rest. And in our resting we are invited to reflect and to listen to what God is asking of us.

For Americans, for whom religion means so much, a national holiday like Independence Day is a special opportunity to rest and reflect on what God is asking of us as citizens as well as religious people. It is, it seems to me, a kind of civic Sabbath.

The lives of the two people that I just shared have a lot to say to us, on this civic Sabbath, about what it means to be Americans. Each, in his and her own ways, became conscious that something was being asked of them. As Americans we have much to be thankful for. In fact the wonder and awe that Heschel speaks of can be wonder and awe at our amazing history – at the great men and women who have gone before us. In recent years scholarship has uncovered more and more about our founders. I have been struck that, even as they have been more and more revealed to be real people – warts and all – not plaster saints, at the same time, they become more and more fascinating. More truly real. They were awesome. And it is remarkable how, in their own times and places, they heard what was being asked of them an did it.

On this Independence Day civic Sabbath, I think it would be important to rest, reflect, and attend to the spirit. Tom Bratten came to understand that what was being asked of him was to fight for the rights of veterans, particularly the disabled. That fight goes on and is very timely in the context of the present war. Elizabeth Padilla fought to provide opportunity for all. She saw opportunity as the deciding factor in an individual’s success. That also is timely. With the current stress on the word "liberty" (in some quarters a code word for unfettered capitalism), we need to recall that our pledge of allegiance says, "with liberty and justice for all." We need to stress both, because both are needed. And, in my view, "opportunity" is another word for "justice." Liberty amid poverty and oppression is meaningless. Americans who are people of faith have something to say about what God is asking of us as citizens. People of faith need to be saying, in season and out, that citizenship is about liberty and justice, freedom and opportunity. And we need to be saying that citizenship is never, in the final analysis, about the accumulation of wealth, power, and military might. Our old congregational hymn says, "Not alone for mighty empire." Perhaps it should be "not at all for mighty empire!"

In this civic Sabbath, what is being asked of you as a citizen of the United States of America? How are you responding? What is being asked of you as a follower of Jesus Christ? And how are you responding? Amen.

washingtonpost.com
Pro Bono Lawyer Elizabeth Kasulis Padilla

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 30, 2005; B06

Elizabeth Kasulis Padilla, 28, a McLean native who worked as a pro bono lawyer and legal services coordinator with the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project Inc., and who was a tireless volunteer with a number of organizations, died June 9 after being hit by a truck while riding her bicycle in a Brooklyn street a few blocks from where she lived.

Ms. Padilla was born in Washington and graduated in 1995 from McLean High School, where she was captain of the varsity basketball, soccer and field hockey teams. She received a bachelor's degree in Spanish and sociology from the University of Virginia in 1999. She took extra courses so she could earn a law degree and a master's degree in law from Cornell University in 2002. Her specialty was international human rights law.

After graduating from Cornell, Ms. Padilla spurned a six-figure starting salary with a Silicon Valley law firm to do poverty law. For two years she worked at the Family Center in New York, providing pro bono legal services to indigent persons suffering from terminal illnesses, primarily people living with HIV-AIDS. Much of her efforts involved arranging for the future care of their children.

She joined the Volunteer Lawyers Project in 2004.

Ms. Padilla worked as a volunteer for Human Rights Watch, taught English as a second language to Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking immigrant high school students and worked in a soup kitchen run by New York Cares, a volunteer organization.

Her volunteer endeavors were in keeping with a lifelong pattern. In high school, she was a candy striper at Inova Fairfax Hospital. As a college student, she was a volunteer firefighter in Charlottesville and in Ithaca, N.Y. Her father recalled that she enjoyed the physical challenge of the work, the intellectual stimulation of learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other skills, and the firefighters' camaraderie.

As a law student, she spent a summer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she worked in Mostar as a volunteer legal assistant for women, mostly widows, who were seeking to regain their houses and other property taken during the Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing.

A cyclist, swimmer and marathoner, as well as a personal trainer, Ms. Padilla was a member of the Achilles Club, an organization that enables people with all sorts of disabilities to participate in mainstream athletics. She ran the New York City Marathon in 2004 as a partner with her friend Leo, who is blind. She also rode with him in a tandem-bike race in May.

Her father suggested that her zeal to serve was nurtured, at least in part, by her family background. Her grandfather was a Mexican immigrant. Some of her relatives are peasant farmers in Mexico, yet an uncle is the chief executive of Ford Motor Co. She understood that opportunity, not native intellect, was the deciding factor in an individual's success, her father said, and she worked to make sure that others had opportunities.

In the days since her death, she continues to serve as an inspiration for change. New York cyclists are leaving wreaths and messages at the site of her accident and are organizing and lobbying the city in her memory for stronger ordinances to protect bike riders.

When she wasn't helping others, Ms. Padilla enjoyed reading, languages, playing the piano and traveling. While studying at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in the summer of 2000, she organized a car caravan of fellow students to Spain, where she ran with the bulls at Pamplona.

Survivors include her husband of nearly two years, Tim Kasulis of Brooklyn; her parents, David and Kathy Padilla of McLean; and two sisters, Sara Padilla of Washington and Rebecca Padilla of Arlington.

Holidays are days of rest. In our religious traditions, holidays are what we call Sabbath time. Sabbath is about rest and it is also about reflection. Rabbi Heschel wrote:

In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where (we) may enter a harbor and reclaim (our) dignity…The island is the seventh day, the Sabbath, a day of detachment from things, instruments and practical affairs as well as of attachment to the spirit.

Whether we observe Sabbath on Sunday, or Friday evening through Saturday evening as our Jewish friends do, or on Saturday as our Adventist friends do – it is a time set aside to stop doing and rest. And in our resting we are invited to reflect and to listen to what God is asking of us.

For Americans, for whom religion means so much, a national holiday like Independence Day is a special opportunity to rest and reflect on what God is asking of us as citizens as well as religious people. It is, it seems to me, a kind of civic Sabbath.

The lives of the two people that I just shared have a lot to say to us, on this civic Sabbath, about what it means to be Americans. Each, in his and her own ways, became conscious that something was being asked of them. As Americans we have much to be thankful for. In fact the wonder and awe that Heschel speaks of can be wonder and awe at our amazing history – at the great men and women who have gone before us. In recent years scholarship has uncovered more and more about our founders. I have been struck that, even as they have been more and more revealed to be real people – warts and all – not plaster saints, at the same time, they become more and more fascinating. More truly real. They were awesome. And it is remarkable how, in their own times and places, they heard what was being asked of them an did it.

On this Independence Day civic Sabbath, I think it would be important to rest, reflect, and attend to the spirit. Tom Bratten came to understand that what was being asked of him was to fight for the rights of veterans, particularly the disabled. That fight goes on and is very timely in the context of the present war. Elizabeth Padilla fought to provide opportunity for all. She saw opportunity as the deciding factor in an individual’s success. That also is timely. With the current stress on the word "liberty" (in some quarters a code word for unfettered capitalism), we need to recall that our pledge of allegiance says, "with liberty and justice for all." We need to stress both, because both are needed. And, in my view, "opportunity" is another word for "justice." Liberty amid poverty and oppression is meaningless. Americans who are people of faith have something to say about what God is asking of us as citizens. People of faith need to be saying, in season and out, that citizenship is about liberty and justice, freedom and opportunity. And we need to be saying that citizenship is never, in the final analysis, about the accumulation of wealth, power, and military might. Our old congregational hymn says, "Not alone for mighty empire." Perhaps it should be "not at all for mighty empire!"

In this civic Sabbath, what is being asked of you as a citizen of the United States of America? How are you responding? What is being asked of you as a follower of Jesus Christ? And how are you responding? Amen.

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