Dear Kurt (if I may):

The Arc of the Moral Universe may bend toward justice, but it seems at this point on Planet Earth and specifically the good ol’ U.S. of A. that is mostly hokum—though I take some solace that you have been spared in your corporeal state from the darkest joke of all: The U.S. has literally elected your most iconic artwork:

Below, in your honor, as a small token to your years of service calling on humanity to dig deep and fulfill your fictional imploring: “‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind,’” I offer this Vonnegut Reader on the day in which, if God had been Willing, you would be 94:

• Knowing What’s Nice, Kurt Vonnegut 24 September 2003
• Eugene V. Debs: Statement September 18, 1918
• reading a biography (in the absence of you)
• Harrison Bergeron 2016
• Free
• “Please—a little less love, and a little more common decency.”
• Kurt Vonnegut: “What other advice can I give you?”
• RECOMMENDED: Vonnegut’s Graduation Speeches and Drawings
• On Foma and Mendacity: Letting the Cat Out of the Bag
• The Socialist Objective: “I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity”
• Kurt Vonnegut’s Children’s Crusade: Kindness
• The Vonnegut Review: Eugene V. Debs
• “Eager to Recreate the Same Old Nightmare”: Revisiting Vonnegut’s Player Piano
• Kurt Vonnegut Scholarship

So, Kurt, should we even bother to Hope?

Nonetheless, God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut.

As I must imagine you Out There Somewhere, know a few of us our trying, although you are likely: