Tim and I have been in Cork for the past few days. While we’ve visited Ireland several times, this was our first venture south. The purpose of the trip was exploration and research. I contacted some local folks ahead of time who were gracious enough to give me a tour about the area. We had a set meeting time of 2 o’clock one afternoon. However, revenge of Google lead me astray. Far away from the appointed meeting time.

While we followed along the route that Google suggested, an hour into the supposed two mile walk, it became obvious that we were astray of the appointed meeting time. There were words of frustration, some stomping off, some whiffs of panic, and numerous chats with folks along the route who assured me that we were indeed far amiss our intended spot. Alas, one kindly woman named Mary offered to carry us to the rightful place, even though it was not the way she was headed.

We arrived only a few minutes late to find our local tour fella was also a few minutes late, so all was well. We jumped right into a discussion about Bernie Sanders, who had been in Cork only a day prior to us. And that conversation, as with all of our conversations in Ireland, quickly turned to the politics of America. They feel sorry for us, y’all. Everyone. Everywhere we go. They pity us. And I suppose they should. If any place understands the problems that bad rulers impose, it’s the Irish.

The local historian showed us the baptismal where Mary Harris was likely baptized. You might know her best as Mother Jones. He also showed us the sign dedicated to Annie Moore, the 14-year-old girl who along with her two younger brothers was the first immigrant recorded to arrive on Ellis Island.

We happened upon the statue dedicated to Annie and her brothers during a subsequent viist to the town of Cobh, just up the road apiece from Cork’s Shandon neighborhood. It’s mindbogling to think about the number of immigrants that we welcomed in the US during a different era and juxtapose that against today’s politically fraught climate.

Ireland is on their third woman president. Before Catherine Connolly, they had a poet as president. We have a rapist and convicted felon. Is it any wonder people around the world think Americans have lost their ever lovin’ minds?

I wear my “Dear World: We hate him, too” pin wherever we go. It’s my way of saying, we are safe people to be around. It used to be that I didn’t need it because as a cab driver in Glasgow once told me Trump-lovers don’t travel outside of America. Why would they? Traveling to a country like Ireland where women can get elected as president might mess with their white-washed narrative about America being the greatest country on earth. It’s not by the way, not by a long shot.

Other countries invest in their people. Other countries have healthcare, daycare, parental leave, income for artists, and political systems that allow for coalition buidling instead of a divisive “us or them” system. The Irish, for instance, have choice voting, which is basically rank choice voting. Their legislative body is divided porpotional to the people’s votes. So there are many different voices represented instead of the “us vs them” choice we deal with. Allowing for a variety of voices forces politicians to work together on behalf of the people.

We can no longer count on not running into MAGA when we travel now, though. We are now encountering MAGA voters who are trying to escape Trump’s evil empire. Like us. Our waiter at a local seafood restuarant told us he grew up in Arizona but relocated to Ireland over the past year. His parents left Arizona for the Ozarks.

They must be MAGA, I said.

“I voted for Trump, too,” said The Waiter.

“Why?” I asked.

“My whole family did,” said The Waiter. “We thought he was pro-life, but he’s not. He’s a liar. He’s evil. Even my mom thinks he’s evil, now. We all do.”

Big sigh. I wanted the conversation to stop.

But The Waiter was keen to keep talking about Trump and why he no longer liked the man. Turns out The Waiter’s wife is a Brazilian. They met online. “At first it was like forty some countries that the immigration ban included, but then he bumped it up to seventy some.”

Including Brazil. The obvious thing I didn’t say was that The Waiter seemed to be okay with the forty something countries being banned but when it affected his life, his wife, that was a different matter altogether.

That’s why he and his wife are now making their home in Cork. He doesn’t miss America. “Both parties are evil,” he said.

I told him I didn’t agree with him. That I didn’t think every politician was evil but yes, I do think Trump is. What I wanted to say but didn’t is that it was wrong of him to thrust Trump upon the rest of us, only for him to then escape the destruction that he voted for. I could give grace for those who voted for Trump the first time but not this last time. This last time, if you voted for Trump you voted for this evil. It didn’t matter how much Trump hurt others as long as it wasn’t hurting you.

Our very job as Believers is to care for the “least of these.”

This notion of “us and them” is the primary thing I don’t miss about the religious culture I grew up in. I no longer live in a constant state of hyper fear of others. Yes, I do believe there’s evil in the world. I think Trump and Netanyahu embody that evil. But I no longer go around relegating people to the “saved” and “unsaved” boxes. Some of the people who claim to be “saved” are some of the most reprehensible people in the world – yes, Ken Paxton, I’m looking at you.

So when a stranger named Mary offers me a ride down the hill to Shandon, I thank her and tell her she’s saved the day. Then I whisper a prayer of thanks to Creator for doing the very thing I sat on my front porch and prayed for decades ago – “As I age, Lord, make my world bigger, not smaller.”

Karen Spears Zacharias is author of The Devil’s Pulpit & Other Mostly True Scottish Misadventures (Mercer University Press).