Let Us Pray for What Is Right

The year 2015 ended on a down note. So let’s try to start 2016 with something a bit more upbeat, even if it is really nothing more than an appeal for reason and civility in a society in which those qualities have been severely strained lately.

The prince of babble and bigotry, Donald Trump, seems to be arguably the main reason for those strains, although there are others whose efforts have been only slightly less shameless in their pandering to the bottom-feeders. Muslims, Mexicans, African Americans, immigrants, women, gun-law advocates are among those who have become targets by the mean-minds.

The debate on these and other issues — truthfully, it is no debate any longer, it is merely screaming — has diminished and demeaned all of us. And it seems endless as we peer into the new year. Is there anything to be done? Is there anything that might succor?

On a national scale, I admit I don’t know. But perhaps the best answer is to look locally, to the communities in every part of our nation. In the very tiny corner of the world I live in, there is something being attempted, and it deserves not just support but emulation everywhere.

It is a candlelight vigil to honor love and civility, honesty and justice, a call to our higher ideals. In our community, that vigil will be held on the Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend — is there any better time? — on the Common in the town of Walpole, NH, hosted by the churches of the area. I’ll be there, and I know others will, too. My hope is that many others will join all around our country to observe why we are a great country and to counter the noisy voices of discord and shame.

I’ll quote the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, one of the hosting churches, the Rev. Susan Kershaw, who wrote of the vigil “As Americans, we must speak out out in order to counter these fearful, divisive message with a call to resist fear, seek justice, and appreciate the diversity of faith and race in our great nation.”

Amen. The vigil will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, January 17.