Dear editor,
I wasnt going to respond further, since I seem to have been rather egregiously misunderstood. However, I have been encouraged by even acquaintances I barely know who have taken the time to tell me they agree with me and appreciate what I wrote last week, so, here goes:
Yes, things that actually happened four years ago are being reported (used again this year as grist for the slander mills) as if they just started happening now instead of four years ago.
This administration, by encouraging enforcement of laws already on the books, is bringing attention to the fact that these were not good laws to start with and need to be changed! This is how a law abiding, democratic republic operates according to our Constitution, which has guided us toward our ideals for over 200 years.
Yes, things have changed since the Statue of Liberty was gifted to the USA by France in 1885. We no longer are a developing nation with plenty of room and opportunity for the huddled masses of the rest of the world, for one thing! Our American Way imperfectly implemented even from the beginning, has nevertheless proved so successful that millions of people want to come here and take advantage of its benefits! (I would suggest that it would be a better plan for other nations to discover and implement the keys to our success in their own lands! Instead we seem hell-bent on following the examples of nations that are floundering in debt, human abuses, abject poverty, and the woes of all the isms of the world!
Which leads me to my latest discovery: there is no longer a consensus of opinion, much less actual definition of terms such as: fascism, socialism, libertarianism, liberalism (look each of these words up in several sources and the contradictions will flabbergast you, as they did me! We no longer seem to agree as to what is right or left wing, much less what in the center or liberal or moderate means. And the simple word progress obviously indicates something very different to different people. Even people who call themselves Democrat or Republican have wildly divergent, and often inconsistent, standards for those labels!
And now, instead of recognizing the danger of all this divisiveness, it is being whipped into frenzy by the blind leading the blind. Some are panicked by legitimate fears; others are simply looking out for No. 1 with no genuine deep concern for the well-being of others. Slick talking politicians have replaced honest statesmen (that term includes the female gender). Bureaucrats have replaced duly elected officials.
The point I have been trying to make is that anything that is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth (all available information not extraneous opinions but plain, un-slanted facts) is an attempt at deception a false representation a lie.
I certainly do not, and did not, intend to imply that it has necessarily been intentional on the part of our newspaper, much less my friend the editor, to present unproven claims as fact. The article that I referenced was not written by her or any of our local reporters but simply copied from one of our (supposedly moderate actually extremely leftist look up synonyms for yourself) national publications.
We all need to check out, first of all, our sources (and their biases) and then other sources (with biases other than our own!) and then carefully examine the actual wording of what is being presented (should, maybe, might, predictably, is likely, for example, are all words indicating opinions not facts) and look for credible supporting evidence.
Thanks for hearing me,
Jean Anderson
Iola, Kan.
