Nice people like me ruin the world.
You wouldn’t think so, but it’s true.
People who can start wars often do
and nice people say they shouldn’t.
But when called to come, nice people go.
Nice people don’t get rich by robbing banks.
But people who own banks
get rich by robbing nice people,
no gun required, just paper and ink.
Nice people like us need to rethink.
What do nice people think about all day?
Nice thoughts, of course.
What nice people should think about
are things that are not nice,
like injustice and poverty.
Nice people, like me, do not interrupt.
When key people talk nice people listen,
they smile, they nod even in disagreement,
they clap to slap away what they heard
to make space for what they hoped to hear.
Nice people try not to like money, but they do.
It is a source of power like a double ‘A’ battery
to be used in a flashlight to see in the dark
although nice people think it’s not nice to look in the dark
Without nice people, corrupt people couldn’t accomplish so much,
couldn’t get away with so much, couldn’t do what at first seems nice
but later when all is said and done, it doesn’t.
It’s hard for nice people to believe everyone is not nice,
how nice life would be if most people were
polite, pleasant, agreeable, and fair – in a word ‘nice’.
Nice people are not racists, or sexists, or xenophobes.
Nice anti-Semites can barely believe you would choose
to think much less of them with their hatred of Jews.
Nice people out masked on a viral spring day
say, we’re all in this together, which feels good,
but that’s not what the percentage numbers say
Nice people, wanting to be thought of as nicer,
forget nice is a four letter word from Latin nescius
meaning ignorant, foolish, stupid, and unaware.
So the next time you look in a mirror, take my advice
see a person who’s kind and insightful, not merely nice,