Bringing out the worst in people

Appalling doesn’t seem a strong enough word to express the dismay I feel at the direction an apparently large population of our country has shown recently. Do not some people remember Nazism and the Holocaust, Hitler and “ethnic” cleansing?

The blatant promotion of racism and other kinds of bigotry encouraged by Donald Trump seems to have brought out the worst instincts of people, some of whom even call themselves Christians, but who certainly don’t embody Christ’s teachings about love, justice, caring for the needy and poor and abused, nor do they seem to remember the Emma Lazarus poem engraved on our Statue of Liberty.

I am scared.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Bringing out the worst in people."