Until the election this year, no U.S. Presidential candidate has identified so many enemies within the nation whom we should fear.  The Republican Party’s candidate for President has made, as in 2016, purging of immigrants within our borders the foremost plank of his policy platform.  But they are not the only group targeted for condemnation and reprisals.  His opponents in 32 felony cases in which he has been convicted have now also been put on notice.  Media outlets intent on lifting the veil of lying, depravity in relationships with women, violation of business contracts and attack dog strategy in multiple court cases, any persons or group publicizing the truth of his grotesque mendacity may expect reprisals.

Although he has been classified as a would be dictator. a leader in the mold of other authoritarian rulers today and in the past century, an accurate assessment of his biography of misdeeds may require a comparison with figures farther back in history.  My own search for a true match has been prompted by the following poem of David Budbill:

 “The emperor

         His bullies and

         Henchmen

         every day

         Terrorize the world

         Which is why

Every day

         We need

A little poem

         Of kindness

A small song

Of peace

 A brief moment

Of joy

– Written by David Budbill in 2005. Budbill was posthumously named “The People’s Poet of Vermont” by the Vermont legislature.

Contemplating the possibility of this nation elevating a depraved egotist to our highest office the Book of Psalms gave voice to what I felt. Here in Psalm 5, written over 2500 years ago, I found an apt description of the man who threatens to become the President of our formerly united States.

         “There is no truth in their mouths;

                  their hearts are destruction;

          their throats are open graves;

                 they flatter with their tongues.

         Make them bear their guilt,

                 O God:

             let them fall by their own

counsels

         because of their many

transgressions cast them

out,

         for they have rebelled against

you.

Those are verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 5, in the New Revised Standard Version translation of the Hebrew Bible. Psalm 133 suggests a source for the “brief moment of joy” for our “every day” as Budbill calls for in his poem “What We Need”.

         “How very good and pleasant it is

               when kindred live together in

                      unity!

         ……..

         For there the Lord ordained his

                 blessing

            life forevermore.”

Those are verses 1 and 3b of Psalm 133 in the NRSV translation.

We in the U.S. are blessed by the presence of people from many of the world’s nations who have chosen to make this nation their home.  They come in many colors. They come speaking many languages, eating a delightful variety of foods, following many different customs. We encounter them as our yard tenders, bricklayers, journalists, tree trimmers, nurses, meal servers, bus and truck drivers, long term care givers, crop harvesters, doctors, shop owners and clerks and public servants.  Every day most of us have the opportunity to show gratitude for their presence and their service.  Every day we can all share with them a “brief moment of joy” with a smile, with words of kindness, with words of thanks.