Two interesting things happened last week — besides the other really interesting thing that I’m not going to talk about (much) — both of which revolved around people named Sanders.
First, Bernie Sanders was widely condemned for questioning Russell Vought, the nominee for deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. It seems that Vought made this statement: “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned,” in response to questioning because of some public statements he had made. Sanders condemned the remarks as Islamophobic and many condemned Sanders.
Of course, a religious test for government office is constitutionally prohibited, and I am personally torn about the proper response. Here is what I do know: Whomever you believe your deity to be, if he condemns someone who doesn’t believe like you, then why should you treat that person with the dignity and respect that, as an agent of our government, you should treat all citizens? Can’t you see that an attitude like that is destructive of your soul?
Please believe what you want about your own path to salvation, but stop acting like every other human has to believe like you do to please your deity. Just for a minute, imagine what the result would be if Vought were a Muslim or a Hindu or a Jew and said the same thing about Christians.
Although the Comey hearing dominated the news, a side story caught my eye. When asked if President Trump lied, Sarah Huckabee Sanders got visibly angry and said he was not a liar, that just asking such a question was insulting. Wow! Welcome to bizarroworld!
It remains to be seen whether Comey or Trump are telling the truth about particular conversations, but one thing is clear: Trump is most certainly a liar. For some reason, lying has been in the news lately and there was even an article about it in National Geographic.
It seems that we all lie, learning to do such at the tender age of 3. So, to some extent, we are all liars, though most of us confine our lies to those required to live successfully with and among others, and are also, thankfully, not often in the public eye. Nevertheless, three million illegal votes were not cast in the last election, the crowd at the inauguration was not the largest ever and Obama did not wiretap Trump Tower.
You can dismiss Trump’s lies as innocent exaggerations, stretching the truth, whatever, or you can overlook them as inconsequential. It would also be easy to state that Comey and not Trump is lying in this particular case, but it is appalling to me that someone could simply state, “Trump is not a liar.”
How can Sanders lie in such a bald-faced manner? How do you totally sell your soul, relinquish all semblance of character and integrity? For loyalty? For an ideology? I don’t have an answer. I am just sad to see someone do that to herself. And sad for our country that people are willing to do it.
Dr. Kluzak, an Idyllwild resident, is board certified in Anatomic Pathology, Obstetrics and Gynecology. He also is a freelance photographer for the Town Crier.