In the political battle to win the White House — the outcome of which could determine whether the world sees peace or a new world war — it’s no laughing matter that Trump is known for his clenched fist and threats of war, while Harris — who would be the first woman to lead the great empire — is known for her joyful and laud laughter. It is a battle between war and peace.

In the absence of books, my father — from whom I got my love of words, both prose and poetry — taught us outside of class. He took us to a garden to explain the richness of colors: the green of lettuce, the yellow of peaches and ripe figs, the violet-red of grapes. And he went further: he told us that the five vowels of the alphabet could be happy or sad. It was a game, but that’s how we learned to interpret a language that transcended words. He told us that of the five vowels, a was the first and the happiest, and u was the last and the saddest. And we played at analyzing our names.

To continue the game, the letter a in Kamala’s name evokes achievement, aspiration, affirmation, while the u in Trump’s name brings to mind unhappiness, uncertainty and unrest. It is the last and darkest of the vowels.

There is little doubt that if the U.S. elections are won by Trump’s scowl, the world will darken. Better for them to be won by Kamala’s luminous laugh, by the a that admires and assists freedom and democracy. Not the lead of the closed fist of Trump, a name that even evokes night over day. It evokes that u that my father described as hard and sad, the last of the vowels. It evokes umbrage, usurpers and ultras.

Ah, peace is spelled with an a.