Calling It What It Is

If someone builds a multimillion-dollar

Fortune teaching folks to scorn and fear

People who are different from them,

Is that person one we should revere?

 

And if that person uses racist language

That white supremacists all love to use

And ties himself to Christian nationalists

With whom he shares extreme, repulsive views

 

And calls our many immigrants invaders,

Thus stirring up contempt, disdain, and dread,

And also says he has a preference

For the days when gays were stoned till dead

 

And normalizes bigotry and hatred,

Should that person then be idolized?

It seems to me that there would be more reasons

For him to be distrusted and despised.

 

If that person lacks the decency

To care about the people whom he slights

And says that violence is very often

Necessary to protect our rights

 

And later he becomes the hapless victim

Of the violence that he promoted,

It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy:

To die from views to which one is devoted.

 

They say the dead should not be talked about

With words of malice; we should be forgiving.

But should someone be glorified in death

If he was reprehensible while living?

 

-by Bob B (9-16-25)