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Leadership and sticking to the facts

“Oh, what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

Today, we have learned that one can say an “untruth” and simply refer to their “misstatement” as an “alternative fact.” Or so the president’s counselor, Kelly Anne Conway believes.  But what does her denial of the truth say to our children, or hers?  It is that nonsense that we have heard for over a week now, and it is beginning to become exhausting.

President Trump has been in office for almost two weeks, and it seems that there is a misremembrance, misstatement, alternative fact, statement needing clarification, double-speak, and simply put, one lie, after the other. While I have been willing to give our new president the benefit of the doubt, and to allow some time to pass before rendering an opinion, I don’t know if I can continue to do so. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, truth from our president and his team is needed.

Within President Trump’s first weekend in office, as a matter of fact, the day following his inauguration, the press secretary blamed the press for not telling the truth about the inaugural crowd size. This argument took over the airways and there were photographs showing the crowds from President Obama’s inauguration and President Trump’s side by side. When the denials could no longer be ignored, we learned of a new way to say lie; “alternative facts” became a new expression for the president’s press secretary to use at will.  I wanted the president and his staff to just stop with the perpetuation of such trivial issues, but they refused, and the denials of what everyone else’s “lying eyes” were seeing continued.

“We’ll build a wall, and Mexico will pay for it.” We now know that Executive Order 12 orchestrating the planning and eventual building of a wall will more than likely be paid for by the American consumer for the goods produced in Mexico. Someone should remind our president that what goes around comes around, and while Mexico may pay a tariff, they will also charge more for their goods.

I believe I can say with some degree of confidence that our president says what he believes people want to hear, and then continues to repeat the same applause line over and over again; this is dangerous, and it seems there is no one who can stop him.  Even when they are on the record of disagreeing with him prior to the election, they are now agreeing with him — what Kool Aid are these otherwise honorable and honest public servants drinking?

Just look at the recent Executive Order blocking Syrian refugees. This past week President Trump signed Executive Order 14 which blocked Syrian refugees from entering the United States indefinitely, and put a freeze on a select group of others for up to 120 days.  His purpose for signing this order was to allow for extreme vetting of individuals considered to be a terrorism risk.  The countries he declared as most dangerous were Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. He did not, however, include Saudi Arabia or Dubai — countries where he does business. In December 2015, when asked about then Candidate Trump’s promise to stop Muslims from coming into the United States, Reince Priebus said, “I don’t agree. We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values.” This past weekend, Priebus defended the President’s action and used double speak to explain the interpretation and processing of the order. We will now see this battle take place in the courts.

Once the lie is told, it is repeated, until those who want to believe it, no matter what, begin to repeat it themselves.  The others simply cower in the corners and try to find ways to defend what has been said by stammering and referring to the alternative facts that don’t exist; they are blinded by the grandiose display of blatant disregard for the truth.

I want my elected officials to tell the truth. Whether it is the councilperson, mayor, governor and, yes even the President of the United States. If our word is our bond, then what does the word of someone mean if it is in a constant state of flux and chaos in which alternative facts are held up as truth?

Our country needs to get to work to solve the problems that are hurting the American people. We need to secure our borders, but not with lies, false promises and innuendoes.

There are problems with the Affordable Care Act, I agree that the cost of health care is a problem, but fix it, don’t just repeal it.

When it comes to Sanctuary Cities, I think President Trump is on the right track — we need to remove those individuals who are here illegally and who commit crimes.  And, yes, we must defeat ISIS, but not by the drastic measure he has taken to ban all Muslims.

There is much to be done, and I believe President Trump has the ability, the intelligence and the courage to do what is right.  He has some good people in place around him — if he would just tell it straight, and if those closest to him would stop enabling his propensity to avoid telling the truth.

President Trump has said that he is a Christian, and I believe him. Maybe he should take a look at the power of truth as spoken in John 8:31-32, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Have a great day.

Vicki Westling is a Dunkirk resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com

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