Art,

As far as I know (not that I'm an expert, the term for a female's ceremony is Bat Mitzvah)

M.Ted, Marty D - thanks for your comments. Susan's the kind of person I have do deal with pretty regularly and it's nice that my feelings can be understood here.

Susan, not that I need to respond to you, but I just want you to know that while I struggle in my own life, I volunteer many hours of my time to help people. I work hard trying to develop an interfaith dialog within my community in Central Florida. I am Unitarian Universalist and have many friends in the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Jewish communities as well as friends who are Quaker, United Church of Christ, Spiritualist, Congregationalist, Metropolitan CC, Unity, but few other Christian faiths want to talk about interfaith work. This is true even after 9-11.

I struggle educating politicians and other community leaders that the best way to build community is to invite everyone to the table to discuss their needs. 9-11 has helped there - nothing like an injection of "politcal correctness" Muslims in the community have seen the bulk of this change, but just to give you an example:

I went to Orlando's Martin Luther King, Jr. remembrance/celebration tonight. I has been going on for about 8 years. In that time it has begun with a march that starts at City Hall and walks to the Methodist Church several blocks away. The service held at the church is heavily Christian focused - Prayers, Christian music and the like.

This year the march went from city hall, across the R/R tracks to the Bethel Baptist Church in the middle of Parramore District which is Orlando's poorest neighborhood (and of course, nearly all black). The service was ecumenical - We got to listen to speakers from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Baha'i, and Christian communities. It was a wonderful service. If that was a result of 9-11, so be it. I'll take it - the whole evening was well received by the 400+ attendees. Hopefully it will become the new tradition.

Oh, and Susan, sorry I make you sick, but I would hope that if you do pray to whatever god you beleive in that you pray that he/she/it can show you how to become an instrument of making the killing and the injustice stop.

pax yall