Make America Great Again

Another shooting, this time in California, and this time an elementary school as the target.  Conclusion:  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people and we do not need to restrict gun ownership in the United States.  We are safer with more guns out there.

Trump is averaging 5.5 lies per day 7 days per week since his inauguration.  He tweeted sympathy to Texas instead of California for the most recent shooting.  Conclusion:  Trump remains a competent President worthy of support.

16,000 scientists from 184 countries sign a letter to humanity warning us that planet earth is in serious trouble and if we do not do something the damage will be irreversible.  Conclusion:  Human impact on climate change is an unsubstantiated theory so we do not need to worry.  Oil companies continue to prosper.

Every nation on the planet except the United States signs the Paris Accords calling for a reduction in fossil fuel pollution of our atmosphere.  Conclusion:  Human impact on climate change is an unsubstantiated theory so we do not need to worry.  Oil companies continue to prosper.

Fox news anchor supports pedophile senatorial candidate.  Keurig pulls ads from his show.  Conclusion:  Keurig is wrong and we should trash our Keurig coffee makers.  Keurig backs off.

Surgeon General determines that smoking cigarettes may cause lung cancer and heart disease, and also true for second-hand smoke.  Conclusion:  seriously enforce restrictions on purchasing cigarettes, ban smoking in all public places, shame smokers and dramatically reduce consumption in US.  Tobacco companies lose money.

It is clear that the proposed tax plan only helps the top 3% of income earners and corporations in this country.  It hurts middle and lower class working Americans.  It dramatically cuts social security benefits and Medicare benefits.  Conclusion:  Congress is determined to pass the plan and many middle class and lower class Americans support the plan.

In the history of walls, no wall over time has ever kept people out or in.  Ever.  Conclusion:  we need to spend billions of dollars to build a wall to keep some people out.

Conservative Christians want to see the government endorse their religious beliefs and make them law.  Conclusion:  time to end the separation of church and state just as ISIS, Taliban, and Al Qaeda propose.

Athletes choose to exercise their Constitutional rights to peacefully protest the treatment of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement.  Conclusion:  Those athletes are un-American, un-patriotic and the NFL should be boycotted.

Except for tobacco it appears that every time we attempt to value human life and liberty over making money or enforcing the beliefs of some, such values lose. 

I agree.  It is time to make America great again.  A nation that stands for liberty, freedom, protects the rights of minorities, protects the rights of people who have diverse religious beliefs, values human life and health over corporate profit, protects the health of every American, not just the rich, and says to the world, we will do what is right no matter what the cost.  Our current America has abandoned all of that.  We have endorsed fear, bigotry, and ego-centrism.  That is not progress.  That is the path to war, not peace; conflict not leadership; judgment not tolerance; polarization not community.   

Why can’t we see that?  Our beliefs conflict with our logic.  Logic is losing.  When they look back on the late, great US of A and the paths we chose, they will say the seeds of our destruction were obvious.  It was not moral decline, it was the insistence that my morals, my beliefs, no matter how wrong or harmful become law. 

Please make America great again while we still have time.

Accused Equals Guilt

Such an interesting time in our nation as many values and practices garner new scrutiny.  Accusing someone of sexual harassment is one of the areas where dramatic change is occurring.  We have moved from a culture where women were shamed and threatened and castigated when making such claims against men to a time where once someone claims to have been assaulted by another the verdict is immediately assumed to be “guilty” and the punishment is handed down before there is even a trial.  Neither of those responses is appropriate in my book.

It takes great courage to step forward and accuse someone of committing sexual harassment, or worse.  The harasser or assaulter is usually someone more powerful, more influential in some way than the victim.  Those who accuse know they will likely be put on trial as it is a “He said, she said” kind of case with no witnesses, or the even happened in the past and the opportunity to collect any kind of evidence is long gone.  I tend to side with the accuser, with the victim.  As a school superintendent when either students or employees came to me with stories of harassment or worse I tended to believe them.  In those cases the accused was never likely to pay millions to hush the complaint.

And yet, I remain deeply disturbed with how we are responding to those who are accused.  In every criminal or civil case where someone is alleged to do have done wrong and/or broken the law we typically begin with the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.  What I see in these guys is assumption of guilt and the meting out of punishment before the accused has little more to do in their defense than to say, “I am innocent.”  A list of accused can be found at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/10/us/men-accused-sexual-misconduct-weinstein.html

Most interesting is that of the 22 who have been accused, some (9) have confessed their guilt, and most have claimed innocence.  All of them have already been punished.  They have been fired, replaced, removed from positions of responsibility, etc., and none of them have been found guilty in court.  Those who confess their guilt and throw themselves on the mercy of the court and of public opinion are to be commended for their honesty.  The others deserve their day in court before they are punished.

Accusation cannot equal guilt.  Not in a land where we cherish freedom, abide by law and trust our peers to judge us in an open courtroom.

Time for Sadie Hawkins Year

I am appalled by the number of women coming forward to share sexual harassment stories.  The numbers are incredible.  I am angered.  Evidently there are large numbers of men who use power, position, and threat of retaliation, etc. to force women into sexual activities.  Those males are wimps, one and all.  Clearly, in my humble opinion, no stable male, no reasonable male, no real male would be interested in affection that was forced or blackmailed.  I do have a hard time understanding these guys.

I have also have had a hard time from time to time reading signals from women.  Are you being nice to me because I am the boss?  Are you touching my arm a lot when we talk just out of habit?  Do you greet me with a hug all the time because we are friends?  I love for women to act as though they find me attractive.  It is a real ego boost even if we just smile at each other across the pews in church.  I don’t act on those cues. 

So it seems we might be able to solve a lot of issues if we all agree in the coming year to reverse roles.  Let’s call it Sadie Hawkins year.  If a women is interested in romance or affection it is totally up to her to initiate.  That would include dates and in the bedroom.  We guys will just sit and wait, bat our eyes or flex our biceps.  This should apply to married couples as well.  It is the year beyond women’s’ liberation, it is the year of women’s initiation!

Thank goodness we agreed to that.  I feel much more relaxed and can sit in the wings and cheer on the prosecution of the males who sexually harassed women.

Truth Tellers and Liars

Many of my friends lament the state of affairs in our nation and grow weary of the attacks flying around between the two political perspectives.  Conspiracy theories abound.  I spend a lot of time fact checking the news I hear and read, and am really certain that I know who is lying, who is spreading propaganda to protect their own self-interest, and who is in fact reporting news from the perspective of a non-biased journalist.

But there are ways to test truth tellers and liars that are fairly simple.  Ways I learned in my philosophy classes in college.  Here is how it goes.

There are two doors.  Behind one door are riches untold.  We’ll call that door 1.  Behind the other door is pain and death.  We’ll call that door 2.  Beside each door sits a man.  One man, Sam, always, always tells the truth.  The other man, Sean, always, always lies.  Sam and Sean know which door leads to wealth and which door leads to death.  Door 1 leads to wealth.  Door 2 leads to death.  You approach.  You can ask one of these men one question and based on their answer decide which door to open.  You ask one man one question, and open the correct door.  How did you do that?

If you asked Sam, who always tells the truth, what door Sean would tell you to open for wealth, Sam knows Sean will lie, so Sam will say door 2 because that is the truth regarding the answer Sean would give.  If on the other hand, you asked Sean which door Sam would tell you to open, and Sean knows Sam will tell the truth and answer door 1, but Sean always lies, he would answer door 2.  You open door 1 and gain untold wealth!  You choose the door neither report.

Among the many conspiracy theories floating around is one that posits Hilary Clinton had a hand in the sale of Uranium to the Russians, and somehow that is a bad thing.  The other is that Donald Trump and his closest advisors colluded with Russia to make money and gain negative information about Hillary Clinton.  How do you know which to believe?  Simple.  Let’s say Sean works for Fox News and Sam works for CNN.  Their truth and lie roles remain the same.  Ask Sean which conspiracy Sam thinks is real.  Sean will lie and say the Hillary conspiracy.  Ask Sam which conspiracy he thinks Sean will say is real, and Sam will say the Hillary conspiracy.  Therefore, the Hillary conspiracy is false and the Russia conspiracy is true.  You can change the players but the answer will always be the same.

Fox spends all day headlining false conspiracies.  Uranium, emails, Benghazi.  CNN spends all day headlining Trump, Manafort, Gates, et. al.  Fox lies.  CNN tells the truth.  In interviews on Fox the anchors always ask, “Why isn’t the mainstream media focusing on these conspiracy theories we keep bringing up?”  Simple.  They are lies.

Fox “News” is a misnomer.  Fox owner Rupert Murdoch insists that the news always favor Trump.  That’s sad because they then report beliefs rather than news, editorialize rather than report.  CNN, and ABC, and NBC, and CBS and MSNBC are committed to reporting the truth because they are owned by corporations who do not want to take sides, do not want to get sued, and want to present the news.  Therefore, those stations always appear out of step with Fox.  The problem, the liar, is Fox.  Fox Sports is pretty much what you would expect it to be, Fox TV series the same.  It is the “News” that is rampant campaign and propaganda material, totally slanted in one direction.  Perhaps the name should be changed to Fox Pas.

As soon as more and more Americans understand that, test that, fact check that, the more likely we are to agree that it is time for Trump to go.  (And take Fox and Murdock with him as far as I am concerned.)  Persecuting Hillary has been a Fox avocation for years and years.  They are determined to find something so scandalous that the real news will be ignored.  Hillary lost.  Proving anything about her is irrelevant.  She cannot be impeached as she does not hold office.  Trump is President and is responsible for all that comes out of his campaign and the Executive Branch.  Red Herrings, conspiracy theories and lies should not throw our fourth estate off the truth.  In fact, if one is perfect the blame is always cast somewhere else:  Obama, Clinton, Congress, “fake” news (which turns out to be real news), and now his son-in-law.

Trump lies.  All the time.  He must be removed from office to save America.  That is not a pro-Clinton comment.  That is a pro-American comment.

False Consensus Dogma: Political, Economic and Religious Polarization

On any given Saturday or Sunday it will become clear who is an ardent fan of any given football team.  The UT fans and OU fans and TAMU fans debate and jab and cajole; the Cowboy fans and the Texans fans and the Patriot fans do the same.  In such instances fans understand, I believe, that there exist fans of teams other than the one they support.  I have never heard even the most ardent of Cowboy fans demand that all football fans support the Cowboys, or that to support someone other than the Cowboys is somehow immoral or wrong.  Fans recognize the right to fandom and the right to support various teams and would not undo such fandom because they rub shoulders every week with fans of different ilk.  I further believe that fans have enough sense to know that the entire sport of football exists only because there are different fans.  If everyone supported one team there would only be one team and a sport could not long exist with only one team.  Multiple teams each with their own supporters make the sport stronger, not weaker.

Other areas in our culture do not fare so well.  Politics, religion, economics, patriotism, etc., are support systems, fan systems and/or belief systems where the likelihood of rubbing shoulders with contrarian views does not contribute to the overall health of the debate and strength of the systems.  Rather, such shoulder rubbing has become the source of polarization, rancor and vitriol.  Why is that?

I think I know two reasons why.

First is the way we are taught to listen.  There are at least two ways to listen.  In what is the current most common way to listen is listening for the purpose of finding flaw with an alternative view and emitting support for a commonly shared view.  Many folks listen as though nothing the Democrats say or nothing the Republicans say could possibly be right.  Listening to the party or philosophy that one agrees with eliminates critical thinking skills and fact checking and listening to the party or philosophy that one disagrees with promotes attack at every point, every turn, and every position.  Such a listening approach has now become institutionalized by some media sources and some pundits.  Nothing the “other” group says can possibly be right and flaws and exceptions are sought and highlighted as though anyone who thinks that way must be an evil fool.  We have now reached a point where failure to agree with the perception and beliefs of the “boss” can result in termination.

The second way to listen is called active listening.  As I hear what you say, or the media says, or a politician says I attempt to understand their position, I seek the ability to re-word their position in my own words.  I seek to understand what they are really saying.  Once I am convinced I understand their positions then and only then do I attempt to line up their reasoning with my own thinking.  Could their position have merit?  Do I need to fact check?  Might this work?  It is through this approach that our positions are ameliorated and we grow stronger and wiser from the minds we may most disagree with.  If I admit up front my position requires constant scrutiny then my position becomes more open.  When I listen to opponents and supporters I seek clarity.  This type of thinking remains in our culture, but typically is only found in families and in truly collaborative teams in both private and public sectors.

The second reason contact with alternative views is resulting in so much polarization is our tendency to interact mostly with folks who think like we think.  People of like mind.  If in your circle of friends and contacts it is accepted as true that Obama was a terrible president, that believing as a Christian believes is somehow how it ought to be, that patriotism trumps civil rights, that unions are bad, and/or that liberals are sick people, you are highly unlikely to engage in active listening when interacting with a contrarian perspective.  Psychologists call this “false consensus”, that is that everyone I know thinks this way so if you do not think like that you must be wrong.  The opposite, of course, is also true if one holds a liberal or atheist position and comes in contact with conservatives.  Because we surround ourselves with folks of like thinking we assume there is a rightness, a correctness to our thoughts.  Everyone should believe this way because everyone I know believes this way.  It is a false consensus rightness. 

I have been “unfriended” because I think differently.  What a sad state of affairs is that?  It means we literally do not want to even hear the other side.  I have FB “friends” who will post a positional piece and say right up front if anyone disagrees they do not want to hear it.  Really?  How will you know if your position is valid without critique?  Without input from other positions?  Without disputing facts?  To hold such a defensive position is also consensus rightness.  I am right.  You are wrong.  You must be a fool, or worse, evil.

This false consensus breeds upon continuing contact with only one point of view.  Conservatives only watch Fox News.  Liberals only watch MSNBC.  No one likes CNN or CBS or NBC or ABC, the networks consistently shown to be fair and open-minded.  We have even adopted a new term, “fake news” implying that anything that disagrees with my position must be wrong or fabricated.  We go to church and sit in pews with people who think like we think and may even hear messages from the pulpit perpetrating a given philosophy.  We go to football games and lean on the tailgates of other like-minded folks and take pleasure in lambasting those fools who think else wise.  We join social organizations based on the philosophical bent of the members, even if the club moto first asks, “Is it the truth?”  We do not want contact with thinkers and believers of alternative perspective.

Until we break down some of these barriers we are doomed to continue down this road toward a divided nation.  I see two solutions.  Active listening is one.  That is a skill that can be taught and practiced.

The other is to seek out folks of alternative perspective and talk with them.  Speaking to my Texas audience I wonder how many of you have actually had a conversation with a liberal, or an atheist, or a Muslim or read the literature supporting both philosophies?  Not many I suspect.  If you feel the need to shun such folks you are part of the problem, not the solution.  Speaking to my national and international audience how many of you have sat with conservatives and religious fundamentalists and truly sought to understand their belief systems?  It is past time to begin such efforts.

I am encouraged by some new bipartisan efforts in Congress.  I am encouraged by the words of some nationally recognized conservatives who are now criticizing both “groupthink” and “my way or the highway” sort of thinking.  I am encouraged that the NRA is opposing bump fire stocks.

But we have a long way to go.  Seek out a person who holds a different perspective, or do a Google or You Tube search and really listen, actively listen.  Do not listen so that you can quickly argue the point.  You will find, I believe, that those other folks are not evil, and you will find that they may have something to say worth considering, and you will find that your own perspective is more thoughtful, more rational and more hopeful.

I further believe that if more and more of us did this, more and more of us would slowly alter our perspectives from entrenched to enlightened.  Facts will move us forward, science will move us forward.  Moving forward to openness is hopeful.  Remaining stuck in our own dogma is damning.

True Trump

It was not easy, but prior to a one-on-one interview with the President, CNN was able to slip sodium pentothal into his drink.  Things got interesting very fast as Anderson Cooper asked questions.

Cooper:  Mr. President there are those who claim that your response to the needs of people devastated by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico was very different than your response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and there are those that claim it is going terribly in Puerto Rico while you claim it is going great.  How are things in Puerto Rico?

Trump:  First Anderson, let me be perfectly clear.  I was not at all interested in helping the folks in Puerto Rico.  I do not think of that island as part of the US.  Those people chose to live on an island in the middle of the Atlantic – what did they think was going to happen?  All the money we spend on them could have helped build a wall.  But when public opinion began to turn against me I had to trot out another lie to appease my base, so I did.  Thank God editors at Fox do not think and do not fact check, and thank God my base does not think or fact check.

Cooper:  Are you admitting that you lie to the American people?

Trump:  Of course I lie.  Why is that such a surprise?  I know folks think of me as a big negotiator, but I am really a salesman, a really great salesman, probably the best that has ever been.  I am not going to tell the consumer that the car I’m selling is terrible and the transmission will fall out in 50,000 miles.  I will tell them it is a wonderful car and they should buy it.  So far, my base continues to buy it.

Cooper:  What other lies have you told us?

Trump:  Most of my campaign was a lie.  I’ve been worse since the inauguration.  I knew I had fewer people there than Obama.  It pissed me off and I wanted to be thought of as the greatest, so I lied about the attendance.  I still cannot believe Clinton got more votes than me, so I made up the voter fraud issue.  I knew the FBI would eventually get around to investigating my ties with Russia so I tried to push some of that off on Obama.  I have been claiming these great economics since I was elected but all that is really due to what Obama did.  I hate Obama and I just want to wipe his record from the history books.  I don’t care if it hurts people or not, I want him gone.  I am embarrassed that we ever elected a Black man to this office. 

Cooper:  Can you give us an update on our relationship with North Korea?

Trump:  That little piss ant dictator really gets under my skin.  He’s a nobody.  He surely does not have the power or importance I have.  When I tell him to stop doing something, I expect him to stop.  He is strutting around like he is something important.  I’ll tell you, Anderson, I need a war.  I need to give the American people a reason to get behind me and support me.  I am ready to nuke him, but the generals don’t like that plan.  I may end up sending in a bunch of troops, but I am not putting up with his stuff much longer.

Cooper:  That is horrifying, Mr. President.

Trump:  I know!  I can’t believe it either.  This guy needs to back down.

Cooper:  You were very critical of President Obama for playing golf.  Now it appears you have played more golf than President Obama did in 8 years.  What is that about?

Trump:  First, do not refer to him as President Obama.  He is not President anymore.  I am the only President this country has.  Second, it’s none of your damn business what I do.  I am the leader of the free world.  I shouldn’t have to answer to anyone.  If I want to go to one of my resorts and play golf I am going to go.  I am not going to share the list of people who come with me, or the people who visit me in the White House any more than I am going to share my income tax.  I am a private citizen with an important job to do and everybody, especially you guys in the media, need to get off my back.  Do not mistake me for a public servant.  I am not.  I serve me and folks who support me.

Cooper:  Tom Price just resigned.  But he is but one of a long list of your appointments who have left.  Why is this happening?

Trump:  I can’t believe you asked me that question, Anderson.  He left because of you and others in the media.  I promised to drain the swamp.  That meant running all these long-time governmental officials and so-called policy experts out of Washington.  I appointed people to take their place that I knew thought like me, supported me, and were loyal to me.  Think of me as the boss of the United States.  No boss would tolerate his subordinates hurting his image or his power.  But you guys just keep hounding them.  You expect to look behind every door, under every carpet, inside every closet.  That is none of your damn business and you have to back off.  No leader shares everything.  Tom left because he became a liability, he was doing my image more harm than good.  He understood.  But the only reason he was hurting me was because of you pesky reporters.  Freedom of the press must be seriously reviewed.  I am sick of all this.

Cooper:  One final question, Mr. President.  Can you tell us what you think the Mueller investigation into Russian connections with you and your campaign staff will ultimately reveal?

Trump:  Sure.  I have told you I am a negotiator and a salesman.  Before and during the time I ran for President I was seeking ways to make money across this planet.  So yes, I was in contact with the Russians in hopes of doing business with them.  Once I announced I wanted to be President the Russians offered intel on Hillary that they claimed would sink her candidacy.  And they offered ways to hack the election so that I might win, place ads supporting me on-line, etc.  What kind of business man would turn down those opportunities?  Only business men who are no longer in business.  So yes, I looked to find out what that intel was and accepted the support in other ways.  No big deal.  I won and the story is over.

Cooper:  Are you aware, Mr. President, that those acts are considered treason in the United States?

Trump:  Yeah, so what.  I did what I had to do to win and my base will continue to support me no matter what comes out of this investigation.  I am just not worried.  I am the best President this country has ever had.  I will be the most loved and adored President ever.  You just wait and see.

Cooper:  Thank you, Mr. President.  And thank you for your candor.

Trump:  You’re welcome.  What did I say?

Knowledge is not Wisdom; Opinion is not Truth

When Kim Jong-un called the President of the United States a “Dotard” and “deranged” in response to the POTUS’ slurs calling him “madman” and “Little Rocket Man” I had to google the term dotard to find out what it meant.  And though my opinion is that both men are correct in their assessments of each other and that both men are operating at the same level as middle school boys on the playground, it is good to be able to know exactly what the juvenile insults imply.  I love Google, and Bing and all the other search engines.  I can get knowledge on any topic with a few keystrokes.  In fact, I can get multiple interpretations of topics, history, etiology, current use, op eds, etc., etc.  Encyclopedias are dead.  Long live Google.  (Perhaps as are dictionaries.  Long live spell check.)

In many ways I wish more people did research using search engines.  I saw a claim on line yesterday about something a celebrity said that triggered a fact-check search on my part.  The claim was totally false.  I wish everyone who denies climate change as a result of human behavior would google the research.  I wish everyone who thinks the earth is flat or that it is 6,000 years old, etc., would google those topics.  The knowledge is out there.

On the other hand, rapid access to knowledge does not make one wise.  It makes one knowledgeable.  There is a huge difference.  Google wisdom.  Each definition includes a combination of experience, judgment, expertise, critical thinking, global thinking; all accrued over time.  One simply cannot be wise at age 12 on any topic, except for those children who have experienced significant hardships.  No 30 year-old can be as wise as a 70 year-old, unless that 70 year-old stop learning and seeking a long time ago.  It takes life experiences, mistakes, errors, pain and expertise to accrue wisdom.  Knowledge alone is cheap.  Earning wisdom tends to be very expensive.  Wisdom is individually accrued.  Though the wise may seek to share their wisdom, they cannot pass it on.  Knowledge spreads.  Wisdom either grows in the individual or it does not.

I believe I am wise in some things and repeatedly unwise in others.  Ten years in the classroom, a master’s degree, four years as a campus administrator, five years as a central office administrator, seventeen years as a superintendent of schools and 3 years as a resident graduate assistant at a university.  I have seen much come and much go when it comes to public education.  I have deep knowledge.  I believe I have wisdom.  For instance, when the Texas Legislature considered implementing a career ladder (merit pay) for teachers I testified against it knowing that not only would it not work, that it was counterproductive, it had not worked anywhere else, and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of what happens in a school.  The legislature did it anyway under the umbrella of “make schools more like a business”.  It was a dismal failure and was repealed 8 years later.  The same is true with charter schools and vouchers.  They do not work, they harm kids and their only purpose is to provide the private sector access to public tax dollars earmarked for schools.  But, we continue to try it and continue to expand these failed notions.  The policy makers may have access to knowledge, but they have no wisdom when it comes to public education.  Worse, they do not recognize that they lack wisdom nor are they willing to listen to the wise.

Why is that?  I believe it is the second bizarre phenomenon that individual opinions, individual beliefs, tend to take precedence over the facts.  The stronger the opinion or the belief the less likely facts or knowledge will influence the opinion.  Evolution is a fact as is demonstrated over and over again.  Some do not “believe” in evolution and no amount of factual evidence will change their minds.  The same is true about climate change.  The same is true about religious beliefs.  The same is true about political beliefs.  No amount of evidence will influence the minds of the true believer, those who hold opinions, beliefs, attitudes that are free floating and are not grounded in facts and science and knowledge. 

It is for this group of people, or for any individual who holds a strong belief that runs contrary to reality, that wisdom will never come.  Faithfulness to the belief may come, but not wisdom and not knowledge.  For every legislator who believes the “cure” for public schools lies in emulating the private sector, implementing strict accountability, standardized tests, charter schools, etc., no amount of facts and historical data will change their minds.  They believe it.  They want it to be true, but it is not.  Those of us who see their folly would be amused if we were not subject every year to more and more attempts to implement their malignant beliefs.  It is as though they see they are headed down the wrong road so they decide to go faster.  Worse, our new Secretary of Education is a missionary regarding such efforts.  Lord help us and help the kids of the USA.

The same is true for supply side economics, or the trickle-down theory.  The entire notion that if we can somehow leave more money in the hands of the wealthy our economy will be better.  Time and time again such a belief has been proven false, sometimes with disastrous results.  And yet, we try it again as there are those committed to this notion despite the history and despite the facts.

I could go on and on.  But I would be amiss if I did not point out that the same philosophy that values flawed opinions versus facts now has a major spokesman and advocate in the White House.  Our President describes a world as he wishes it would be, not as the facts indicate it is.  Over and over and over fact checking his speeches reveals he is either grossly misinformed, ignorant or is flat out lying.  And yet there are those who so believe in him such facts are irrelevant.  And I find that very sad and very scary.

Our progress must be based on facts, on reality, on science.  To hope for progress based on beliefs and opinions is to advocate a return to the Dark Ages.  And that will not make America Great.  If our policy makers do not have the wisdom to seek out the wise for consult, then we shall be harmed by the enactment of opinion that runs contrary to fact.  We are in the midst of that right now. 

I have reached a place in my life where my intolerance for false opinions is at an all-time high.  Frankly, I do not care if you still believe in Santa Clause, still believe we should persecute people for thinking differently and being different, still believe that supply side economics works, still believe that junior high bullying is our best foreign policy strategy, still believe that some humans are “better” than other humans, still believe that oil companies have our best interest at heart, that banks still have our best interest at heart, that the Koch brothers still have our best interest at heart, still believe that walls to separate people work, and/or still believe climate change is a hoax, then I am here to tell you that you are wrong, the facts say otherwise.  Knowledge is not wisdom, opinion is not truth. 

God help us all.