April 13, Infectious Trump?

 

Is Donald Trump the nidus of infection in a boil?

Or, even worse, an abscess where infectious microbes roil?

As racists, anti-Semites, and misogynists expand,

Did Donald Trump release this pestilence throughout the land?

 

These sicknesses, long with us, periodically burst forth.

And now they all grow everywhere, not only South but North.

We had a Civil War where seven hundred thousand died;

And now, mass murders spread, all rationality defied.

 

Trump’s lies encourage those who would deny reality,

Absurdities, atrocities sink to banality.  (1)

Voltaire and Arendt warned us; evil stares us in the face.

It’s everywhere and all at once, a national disgrace.  (2)

 

Our bigotry, stupidity, and our AR 15s,

Are they from an infection or a problem in our genes?

Did Donald Trump bring these on us or bring them out of us?

Regardless of the cause, we are immersed in noxious pus.

 

State legislatures paralyzed, right wingers will not act.

Our Congress paralyzed as well, judiciary packed,

Elected leaders will not do what clearly must be done.

And Donald praises dictators and dreams of being one.

 

We have to start by voting out the sluggards of the right,

Who, for whatever reason, simply will not do what’s right.

Our bigotry is different though, can it be voted out?

We see it every generation and that raises doubt.

 

It’s up to us to start the work which we may not complete.  (3)

We have to stem the evil tide, dare not admit defeat.

The battle is eternal; can the good and just prevail?

Think of the world we’ll leave behind; it’s clear we must not fail.

 

• Voltaire (1694-1778) said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”  Hannah Arendt wrote, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.” (1963)
• See “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,” winner of the Academy Award for best picture of 2022.
• Pirkei Avot, 2-21: “You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it.” The Pirkei Avot, or the “Chapters of Our Fathers,” is a compilation of ethical teachings from the Jewish Rabbinic tradition.