The silence grows louder every day.  Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute. — The New York Times

So it’s left to us nobodies to speak.

A few weeks ago I was sitting among a group of Zen students when one person asked, “We are taught not to judge and yet we say that someone is evil and cruel. Isn’t that a judgment?” It was a good question, a question seeking clarity amid the fear and confusion of these times.

No, I said. There is no judgment involved when we see evil or cruelty.

Evil is evil on its face. Cruelty is cruel on its face. It can be seen and so we see it. It has a name and so we say it. It has a face and so we face it. We must see, say, and face it or it will lead the whole world astray.

Evil is wholly evil. It completely corrupts goodness. Cruelty is wholly cruel. It completely destroys kindness. It is the difference between daylight and darkness.

No part of an evil man is good. No part of a cruel man is kind. Not even one pore.

Evil is born of pride and jealousy. It lives to murder, steal, and lie. Evil can therefore not be cured but must be cast out as an abomination and a universal adversary of humanity.

In my spiritual tradition, we take vows which are called the Three Pure Precepts: To cease from evil, to do good, and to do good for others.

Even now at the peak of evil’s reign, there is a way to do good and to do good for others.

Resist, resist, resist the snake, and evil flees, for it is weak, cowardly, incompetent, ignorant, and insane.

You don’t have to believe a Buddhist. I read it in The Good Book, and boy is it good.

And so the Lord God said to the snake, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” — Genesis 3:14