Can we not do better than this?
When did lying become acceptable? When did deceitfulness become a tolerable quality in a president? Maybe it was when being phony became routine, or when misleading people with fake promises became customary.
How did facts become nonsense and truth become fiction? Was it simultaneous with the assent to deception? Perhaps it started with the concept that if you repeat a falsehood three times, it becomes true.
Name-calling is not a substitute for substance or competence. It is the trademark of a playground bully. And the bully becomes more dangerous when the “good guys” don’t stand up to him. Is no one willing to say that the emperor has no clothes?
Is it really fine with us to have a lying, truth-denying, manipulative, name-calling, profanity-using person in the White House? Is it acceptable for us to be led by a person who demeans individual countries around the world, offends world leaders, and insults entire races and ethnic groups? Can we not do better than this?
The “#metoo” movement and the “Time’s Up” movement give me hope. Women are standing up to the entrenched white-male-dominated culture. They are cracking the veneer of white supremacy that has been a dirty little secret in our nation forever. The current president is a perfect representation of the consequences of this way of thinking. I have believed since the election that it would take the women of America to lead the way to change. I want to believe that this is the beginning of that process.
Cheryl L. Kanuck
Sun City Hilton Head
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This story was originally published February 4, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Can we not do better than this?."