Silence
Says it All
The
bishops are silent
the
pastors, deacons, priests—are silent
before the
candidate who speaks and acts
at times like a monster,
calling twice
for his supporters to assassinate his opponent,
riding
(indeed steering!) a racist meme for five years—
that Obama
is not an American--
galloping all
the way to the presidential candidacy,
slandering
Immigrants, Latinos, Muslims, even the Pope,
mocking
the disabled, demeaning a war hero
because
he was a prisoner of war,
stirring
the xenophobic shadow lurking within us all . . .
and
the bishops are silent, tongue-tied.
The heart
aches, and thinks back
to Germany
and Italy in the 1930s.
Robert M. Coughlin /
September 21, 2016
