Yes, despite his best efforts to foment hate and divide America through word and deed, Trump ironically is uniting America! Not behind himself, of course; but in opposition to him and his hate. You know what he has said or done and continues now that he is a squatter in the White House. So there’s no point repeating it all again.
Instead, consider the response of ordinary people and religious leaders to our so-called president. The ones who refuse to accept the us versus them blame game. The ones who refuse to hate. The ones who have empathy and compassion–something which the would-be emperor knows nothing of and has never experienced at any point in his seventy years of life.
People carry signs at protest rallies and marches that say:
- Love Trumps Hate
- I am a Muslim (when they’re not)
- Refugees Welcome Here
- Or just fill in the blank from one you’ve seen or carried yourself
They undergo training to learn how to protect and support the undocumented immigrants. They open their homes, their places of worship and other sites for sanctuary to worried undocumented.
In Victoria, Texas (a town of 60,000 people near the gulf coast), a rabbi offers the keys to his synagogue to the imam of a mosque that has been destroyed by arson.
In St. Louis, a Muslim group sets up an online fundraising effort to pay for repair or replacement of 200 tombstones tipped over or broken in a Jewish cemetery.
Not only that, but all over the country, people are resisting the policies and executive orders established by Trump at the direction of Boss Bannon.
“When great evil occurs, great good follows,” said Nichiren in 13th century Japan.
It doesn’t happen automatically, of course. It requires the belief and the actions of people. We are seeing that in America today–thanks to the evil of Trump. In the end, America–and the world, will be a better place for all that Trump and Bannon do to destroy it.