My father passed away 44 years ago. At his life celebration, Mom revealed his favorite poem, Abou Ben Adhem, written by James Henry Leigh Hunt in 1834.

Abou Ben Adhem, may his tribe increase!

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the presence in the room he said,

“What writest thou?”-The vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blest,

And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.

I, like my father, am not religious in the usual sense, unless you call humanism a religion. And though I don’t have many years left, I care greatly about earthlings still living and yet to live.

That is why I am more distressed about current politics in our country than I have ever been. I’ve never seen our nation this divided. And I can trace the catalyst for that division to one man, our current president.

At the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk, assassinated by a gunman on 10 September, Trump said “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”

One might expect this comment from a bitter, angry sociopath, but not from the leader of our country!

I’ve lost count of how many times I have said to myself upon the latest Trump action or pronouncement “This is not normal.” Here I am not speaking of politics; I am speaking of morality, kindness, decency. The personal qualities of this man are so different from those I have always aspired to (not necessarily followed), those my parents taught. Those my wife and I tried to instill in our children.

It’s surprising to me that Trump is supported by evangelical Christians. Don’t they believe it’s their duty to spread the good message of Jesus, the message of loving your neighbor, forgiveness, and not seeking retribution against those who aggrieve you?

Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, says his defining characteristic is “transactional”, not “relational.” What does that mean? In short, transactional people view interactions as exchanges; relational people view them as connections. Transactional people expect something in return for what they give, like a business deal. Relational people seek trust, emotional bonds, and unconditional relationships.

Trump called our soldiers who were killed or captured in service of our country “suckers” and “losers.” This is from a man who used bone spurs to avoid military service, but not to avoid golfing. As an Army veteran, I cannot understand how any service member can support him.

He claimed before the 2024 election that if elected we would see our grocery bills drop on day one, the same day he would end the war in Ukraine. It’s day 260 and we’re still waiting.

Trump promotes division, them vs us, not unity. Egalitarian? Anything but. I hope we will heal over time, and that history will show the Trump era to be an aberration, a time of temporary insanity when we lost our collective purpose. I further hope that Trump’s policies that exacerbate the ongoing global problem of climate change can be put back on track when we are rid of him and his “drill-baby-drill” sycophants.

Abou Ben Adhem’s love of his fellow man is not what we get with Donald Trump. His “love” is restricted to those who bow down to him and kiss his ring (I could have mentioned another object). GOP members of Congress do not dare cross him for fear of being “primaried” out of their jobs. And others of influence know if you criticize him he will use the considerable powers he can muster against them. Long ago I learned in management school that this is not the quality of a good leader.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,“ said Thomas Paine, a hero of our American Revolution. Our nation was in great peril in a fight with an enemy from without. Today our democracy, and the world, faces a threat of possibly greater proportion, this time from within.

I can’t do much to reverse this situation, but I can vote and I can write this piece to share with my neighbors. At least that’s something.

The three decades preceding the Civil War — during which all black persons in the United States were ruled less than full citizens (Dred Scott decision in 1857) and citizens in the North’s free states were forced to assist slavecatchers (Fugitive Slave Act in 1850) — are rapidly being recreated in the United States, in new guises.

In that antebellum period, “Slave Power” was the Northern abolitionists’ term for the economic, social, and political influence wielded nationally by well-off enslavers in the South.

By counting a slave as three-fifths of a person but not permitting slaves to vote, the U.S. Constitution’s “three-fifths clause” conveyed disproportionate power to slave states in national politics. Handed that clause, the “Slave Power” dominated the presidency and the U.S. Congress, especially the Senate, and had vast influence on federal legislation and judicial appointments.

• Southerners muscled the Compromise of 1850 through Congress, which included a harsher Fugitive Slave Act. And in 1857, Chief Justice Taney’s Supreme Court ruled that all persons of African descent were not U.S. citizens and had no right to sue in federal court.
• With threats of fines or imprisonment, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act forced citizens in free states to assist slavecatchers. And the 1857 Dred Scott decision declared that black persons “have no rights a white man was bound to respect.”

Which brings us to 2025, as legislators in certain red states are trying to re-cast Abraham Lincoln’s phrase, “half-slave and half-free,” into “half-MAGA and half-Antifa.”

The parallel with Dred Scott is the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, under which the court rescinded a woman’s constitutional right to full health care and in effect decided that “equal protection of the laws” no longer applies to women. Parallels with the Fugitive Slave Act are red-state laws that attempt to extend the reach of these laws to citizens in other states, for example, the Texas law that tries to indict doctors in New York State for providing abortifacients — mifepristone and misoprostol — by the U.S. Postal Service.

• By bringing civil and criminal charges against a physician in New York for prescribing abortifacients by mail, Texas and Louisiana are trying to replicate the Fugitive Slave Act by forcing citizens in other states to obey their anti-abortion laws.
• And by revoking a woman’s constitutional right to full health care and implicitly ruling that “equal protection of the laws” no longer applies to women, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision echoes the Dred Scott decision.

The Civil War was fought for and against the Slave Power, and many believe that conflict has not yet been concluded. How will the current conflict over abortion be ultimately decided, and when?

Gren Whitman

Rock Hall

Our town leadership, the mayor and council members, are apparently following the same narrow “search process” for our future Town Manager that was utilized two years ago, the process that gave us our recently and hastily departed Town Manager.  Chestertown HR is dutifully managing the ongoing search; the department advertised and posted in same Maryland Town Managers Association publication and same limited Maryland Eastern Shore media outlets as before. The internal HR efforts are apparently far along with remaining finalists now being interviewed.  The acting Town Manager is not a candidate and is serving effectively on a temporary basis. With the advertised salary range of 130K, generous benefits, and by utilizing a professional search firm, I believe we can now cast a wider net and attract a much stronger pool of candidates than we did two years ago. With all due respect and appreciation for those working hard for us on this search, I fear by following the same approach as before we risk ending up with a similar pool of undistinguished and lackluster candidates and perhaps a weary finalist looking for a cozy and comfortable landing. (No doubt some of the finalists from two years ago may already be on the short list again!)

Chestertown is a historic and unique river town and has much to offer those who live and work here, especially to energetic and creative and professional Town Managers with impressive credentials who are eager for an exciting opportunity to join, contribute, and lead us forward, along with our volunteer and generous elected officials.

I fail to understand the rush to fill this position, especially since we have a seasoned acting Town Manager who has agreed to serve during a thoughtful search. Let’s be fully transparent here and together undertake a professional search to fill the most important staff position in Chestertown.  Yes, a professional search can be time consuming and expensive for our small community with limited resources, but a professional search is likely to be a very smart investment and reap tremendous long-term rewards.

We have a wonderful opportunity to get it right this time. Hopefully, it isn’t too late to seize the moment.

Aubrey Sarvis

Army veteran, retired lawyer and corporate officer.

Editor:

As one who’s often visited D.C. since the early 1960s, I have never felt unsafe.

While serving in the 82^nd Airborne Division, I spent a three-day pass in 1961 in D.C. while bunking at the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airman’s Club, and had no feelings of being unsafe.

In August 1965, the Capitol police arrested 250 of us as we tried to deliver our “Declaration of Peace with the People of Vietnam” to our congressional representatives. I did not feel unsafe. (For my civil disobedience on the Capitol grounds, I spent three days in the D.C. jail along with pacifist Dave Dellinger, civil rights leader Bob Moses, and teacher Staughton Lynd.)

In May 1971, the D.C. police were a bit rougher as they arrested 13,000 of us during the May Day demonstrations against the war, but again, I did not feel unsafe. (When tried for obstructing a sidewalk, I was found not guilty and 10 years later, received a $10,000 check from the City of Washington to acknowledge my false arrest.)

I picketed LBJ’s White House with Students for a Democratic Society in April 1965 and protested both of Richard Nixon’s inaugurations in 1969 and 1973; at no time did I feel unsafe.

Protests and arrests aside, I’ve safely traveled on D.C. Metro and city buses and visited in utter safety the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, memorials to MLK Jr., FDR, T. Jefferson, and Mohandas Gandhi, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Air and Space Museum, Kennedy Center, Roosevelt Island, the Japanese cherry trees in bloom, the Supreme Court, the National Arboretum, the C&O Canal towpath through Georgetown, Washington monument, Lafayette Park, Dupont and Logan circles, the D.C. Zoo, many restaurants, bars, and eateries, and a spring-time kite-flying extravaganza on the Mall as well as walking, bicycling, and jogging there.

Not once, not for one single moment, in fact not ever—not even while arrested, tried, and incarcerated—did I ever feel unsafe in D.C. Not once was I mugged or robbed. Not once was I threatened in any fashion. I sincerely hope that the various National Guard units feel as safe as I have always felt during their present visit in D.C.

However, I must say that having convicted felon Donald J. Trump as our president along with his MAGA cronies makes me feel unsafe; very, very unsafe.

Yours,

/S/ GRENVILLE B. WHITMAN