A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, “Wolf! Wolf!” and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains.
The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: “Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep”; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
So why do I remind you about or share this story with you? Lately, there has been a lurking to label people racists or bigots. We are also witnessing the evolution of the Russian involvement or not in our elections this year. Was it the mere fact that they were hacked that has lead them down this road or that the information that was leaked was so personally damaging? We are hearing how the United States as we know it will cease to exist after the next administration takes office.
It appears as though one side is so distraught that they are willing to do or say anything to get their way. This is so incredibly dangerous for our republic in so many ways. First of all, there is a trust that we as citizens give freely to the government. We believe that our votes count. When we want change, we change our representative government. But, when we are told, by both major party candidates that the election is and was rigged without any evidence being made public; it makes the population skeptical of our government and thus less likely to trust the very institution that is there to protect each and every one of us.
Whether we like it or not, for better or worse, we need our government and they need us. I, for one, welcome any investigation as long as the evidence is presented to us. I have seen major news outlets misreport “facts” and in some instances never issuing an apology or correction. We all must do better. Is “fake news” real? Of course it is. Is it new? Absolutely not! It has been around since the beginning of our democracy.
We have had BOTH major parties make outright false statements all to plant a seed of doubt in voter’s heads. We’ve had elected officials make these same types of statements on the floor or the Senate and in the House or representatives and when confronted with the evidence one response was, it achieved its goal. He wasn’t elected, was he? This senator still, today, does not regret doing that. Yet these same people are crying wolf now with no evidence to support their claims.
If there really is evidence to support these claims and consensus within all of the intelligence agencies, then it should be de-classified and released to the public, now.
It’s not the idea that we’re living in a post-factual period but more that we have been repeatedly lied to by our elected officials and the media, that the trust has been eroded.
Sowing doubts into the minds of the population is a surefire way to destroy our fragile democratic republic, unless that is the goal. Maybe the ends justify their means and that’s what they are trying to do to us now.
Gina Olson 