Okay, so the default answer is probably yes.  I keep looking at things, though and have to wonder if I am the one that is nuts. Between the testimony of the leaders of our intelligence community and tomorrow’s reported testimony of the former director of the FBI, I have to ask, am I alone in wondering if people just don’t understand basic English anymore?  It is not just the political, though, I see people at work claiming the equivalent of “the sky is green” and people accepting it because we have ceased to be a people that understand, believe and stand on truth.  Everything now is relative, so we cannot call bad bad, we cannot call good good, and we certainly cannot call something unacceptable, well, unacceptable.

I am really not sure why or when it happened, but we have somehow become a community where it is more important for us to “spin” our beliefs as right and our opponents as wrong than it is to simply claim and stand on the truth.  I am reminded of a very, very politically incorrect HBO program from the 1980s-early 90s called “The History of White People in America”, hosted by Martin Mull.  In one episode, he talks about sports and shows a picture of his calf compared to the calf of an African-American athlete and asks people to call in if they see a definite difference or not.  The joke was that the number for “no difference” was a toll-free number whereas the number for a definite difference was a toll number.  The program made a big joke of the comparison, but today, I don’t believe we do.  Today, we cherry pick the numbers that support us in order to justify our position.  I once had a statistics professor even teach us how to do it.  Per his advice, if the raw numbers are with you, quote the numbers, if they aren’t, quote the percentages.

Today is definitely more of a rant than I normally post, but I am short of patience due to a myriad of unrelated issues that colored my mood today.  What pushed me over the edge was an email inviting me to participate in a meeting where the proponents have lied and misled the leadership, and where I need to be, and I quote “sweetness and light”, allowing the perpetrators to continue unchallenged while my leadership regroups and responds.  Frankly, I am not sure how to respond.  I am old enough and a curmudgeon enough to say screw it and call a spade a spade.  Conversely. I see the wisdom of letting them hang themselves with lie upon lie until they are completely entangled and cut off.

At these times, I look to the Psalms and to David, arguably, the greatest king of Israel.  When confronted with lies, David responded with truth.  When given an opportunity to kill Saul, David told his men that he would not raise his hand against God’s anointed.  In any case, I am constantly reminded that standing on truth is always the right answer and that it is up to God to balance the books.  I can’t say it makes me happier in the moment, but it does act as a balm on my soul as time marches forward.

I really wish I had a deep thought or concept for you to grasp out of this, but I really don’t.  I am ranting because I am angered at the seeming triumph of liars over the seeming defeat of the honest, but I know in my soul that truth and good wins out…at least I believe that, and I really don’t want to believe anything else, because, if I am wrong, then there is no victory for the good, but if I am right, and I oftentimes am, then the victory will be complete and fulfilling.