The President

Quote:

Posted in reply to the post by Sara S:

from A.Word.A.Day:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)

While I think this is a great post and a beautiful quote, when I saw this the other day I was tempted to reply with one of my favorite debating points... what is "truth" ? Whose interpertation or experience of it?

And then yesterday I saw Ted Cruz's (as much as I despise Trump- I am thankful that Ted "I was chosen by god to lead the country" Cruz lost to him) statements that the Democrats were the party of the KKK. And this is a very common talking point of the far right.

Whish is "true". Because after the civil war- and the actions of the Republican Abraham Lincoln- the republican party died in the south. And we had a "democratic party" controlling all the southern states- never mind that it bore little resemblance to the northern democrats.

So we have a "true" statement... that is also "false".

And, I think all of us- especially those that have long term partners, friends, kids, etc... also all known the fragileness of "truth". We can experience the same event- but all have different versions of what happened. I know there is a saying among police- something to the effect of "if there are witnesses- please let there be only one". Because eyewitness accounts almost never jive with each other.

And I'll go back to my earlier points and go a little off topic. What is a democrat? Or a republican? We pretend as if they are a homegenous group (and yes, unfortunately for the purposes of our government they have increasingly become the same thing over my lifetime). But if you put a Republican from CA, from Alabama, From Iowa in the same room with a Democrat from NY, from Texas, from Alaska... off the record- those party lines will dissapear on most issues. Another issue of "truth" I suppose - there are ones that vary whether they are viewed internally or externally.

I don't know- I think we all need to consider that "truth", outside of the scientific method, is often transitory. And that our rejudices, left/right, dem/reb christian/muslim/jewish/hindu/wiccca/etc are often based on a false acceptance that x=x rahther then the reality that x is comosed of abc...xyz