Truth matters! In a time of increasing propaganda,
the deliberate repetition of misinformation and outright and blatant lying, we
need to reaffirm the value of truth telling.


Gandhi said his life was an experiment in truth. He
believed one must follow their truth no matter where it leads. For him, Truth
was God. (Now before any Christians get all bent out of shape about this
designation, take the time to understand the ancient sanskrit origin of the
word Gandhi uses for Truth, Satya. It starts with Sat, the word for Being with
a capitol B).
Most people who know the value of truth also
recognize that truth is elusive. One person's truth can be another person's
poison. Truth is usually divisible. We have to establish processes to try and
discern the truth in any given situation. So in our government, we establish a
free press. We establish freedom of speech and assembly. We establish checks
and balances and a tricameral system. We establish courts and a system of
justice.
We investigate. We try to gather facts, not
opinions, but facts. We gather evidence. We interview those who may know
something about the event in question. We use an adversarial system in a court
of law. We ask a person, "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God," with a hand on
the Bible. We don't always get it right but we try hard since getting to the
heart of a situation matters.

It reminded me of the other time lying was coming
from the oval office. President Clinton said, "I never had sex with that
woman." My mother and father would have been all over me with additional
questions on that one. Like, "what do you mean by 'had sex?'"
Now we have a President who lies consistently. The
New York Times has been counting, though the President labels the Times and all
of the liberal press as "fake news." And when it comes to the Russia
investigation, one has to wonder what the President is hiding that requires
such frequent and aggressive activity against others.
Let's get to the truth. Let the Russia
investigation play out. That was the essence of a response I received to a
letter I wrote to Senator Thune some time ago. He seems to be of the same
conviction now, given his statement to the Washington Post Thursday about the
"Nunes memo."

'I think they have to take into consideration what
the FBI is saying,' Thune said of House Republicans angling for the memo to go
public. 'I think they need to pay careful attention to what our folks who
protect us have to say about how this bears on our national security.'”
I, for one, am grateful that at least one
Republican Senator is willing to stand for pursuit of the truth and with our
intelligence community. We won't reach the truth through partisan politics,
suppression of evidence or removing those in our intelligence offices from
their positions.

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