May 12, 2020
The Long Haul
Day 54
It is time to squeeze a few testicles, first at the White House then in a few statehouses across the country.
If you have been to court for any reason or watched a courtroom drama in a film or on television you have seen witnesses stand with their right hand raised, left on a bible and solemnly swear before god “to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
If you have never heard this oath, you have been in quarantine way too long.
The origin of this universal declaration is fuzzy. My favorite etymological explanation states that the Romans were forced to squeeze their testicles while vowing to tell the truth. This gave birth to the Latin word testis or testify.
If ever there was a time for transparency and a little testes squeezing, it is in the middle of a pandemic. Americans want the truth. They can handle the truth. They deserve the truth.
But the truth about Covid-19 is getting harder and harder to find. It was elusive when the virus was raging on distant shores in January and February but when people began dying here even the White House made an effort to get the facts before the American people. It made sense, the president and governors were asking that we put our lives on hold, our economic security in jeopardy because ours and others lives were at risk.
The cold, sober truth was a big motivator in the dead of winter but it melted quickly as the birds began to chirp and flowers appeared in April. Veracity melted with the snow and was replaced with vagary. The spin masters took charge and began telling us only the version of the truth that suited their political agenda.
President Trump is a serial liar. Few dispute this. His reelection and economic wellbeing are all that matter to him. And throughout the Covid-19 crisis he has surrounded himself with the usual toadies and syncophants who bow and genuflect at his every tweet.
But saner, independent voices also had the president's ear early in the crisis. This is after all a disease; if nothing else the president needed optics that showed him soberly listening and nodding his head when Tony Fauci and Deborah Birx spoke during the televised daily Task Force briefings.
That charade is over now. Fauci and Birx have returned to the back benches. The sycophants are front and center. The truth has become fake news and White House spin has become gospel.
There are some English words that seem quite clear. They do not require further explanation. Take for example, “always.” It does not mean sometimes or every time except this time. It means “always.”
Truth is one of those words. It should not need clarification. So why does the oath add the phrase “the whole truth.” Remember the declaration is ancient. If you do not buy the Roman version, the Greeks argued the phrase meant “third observer,” and Anglo-Saxon feudal lords required its knights to make a declaration of fealty.
Why did the ancients require the whole truth? Surely Lancelot did not try to spin Arthur or Merlin and the citizens of Camelot! Perhaps he did. What other explanation is there?
Ok maybe he did try to spin Guinevere!
In some cases, the spin is barely disguised. For example last week President Trump reversed himself and began to argue that Covid-19 testing is not necessary. His logic? Testing is really expensive and therefore no longer fits with his political agenda to make America great again, round two!
Two White House staffers had tested negative initially and then days later tested positive. He said: “...this is why testing isn’t necessary. We have the best testing in the world but testing is not necessarily the answer because we were testing them.”
The message: don’t worry about testing. It’s flawed. It will not protect you, so go to work.
The idea that Covid-19 could spread inside the West Wing was not consistent with his political agenda. Later in the week Trump called testing "somewhat overrated," and he told reporters that "in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."
And there is is. People should die so we do not look bad, so the White House does not look bad, so the president does look bad.
The whole truth is hard to find in some statehouses as well. The data has been sketchy from the outset. But it was not overly being suppressed.
Transparency has given away to expediency in places like Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis refused to release data on infections in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Why? Florida has reopened its beaches. It wants to fill them up. Covid-19 deaths look bad on television.
A Miami court has ordered the governor to turn over some of the data but it is incomplete and does not match data coming from the Medical Examiner’s office. DeSantis will not release the names of the Covid-19 dead as Florida law requires.
Why not? If you give a victim a name, you expose that they lived a life. That they were loved. That they loved. That they are mourned.
No name. No life. No messy emotion to interfere with a return to business as usual.
Florida is not the only state lacking transparancy. The “whole truth” is hard to find in many other states and municipalities.
Americans want to go to work. They want to go to the beach, a ballgame and a bar. They will go if they are told it is safe to do so. They need the truth so they can make informed decisions about their lives.
Politicians should renew their vow to tell the truth, including the inconvenient truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
They should take comfort that the bible upon which they place their left hand offers words of comfort:
“Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
Be Safe!
The Long Haul
Day 54
It is time to squeeze a few testicles, first at the White House then in a few statehouses across the country.
If you have been to court for any reason or watched a courtroom drama in a film or on television you have seen witnesses stand with their right hand raised, left on a bible and solemnly swear before god “to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
If you have never heard this oath, you have been in quarantine way too long.
The origin of this universal declaration is fuzzy. My favorite etymological explanation states that the Romans were forced to squeeze their testicles while vowing to tell the truth. This gave birth to the Latin word testis or testify.
If ever there was a time for transparency and a little testes squeezing, it is in the middle of a pandemic. Americans want the truth. They can handle the truth. They deserve the truth.
But the truth about Covid-19 is getting harder and harder to find. It was elusive when the virus was raging on distant shores in January and February but when people began dying here even the White House made an effort to get the facts before the American people. It made sense, the president and governors were asking that we put our lives on hold, our economic security in jeopardy because ours and others lives were at risk.
The cold, sober truth was a big motivator in the dead of winter but it melted quickly as the birds began to chirp and flowers appeared in April. Veracity melted with the snow and was replaced with vagary. The spin masters took charge and began telling us only the version of the truth that suited their political agenda.
President Trump is a serial liar. Few dispute this. His reelection and economic wellbeing are all that matter to him. And throughout the Covid-19 crisis he has surrounded himself with the usual toadies and syncophants who bow and genuflect at his every tweet.
But saner, independent voices also had the president's ear early in the crisis. This is after all a disease; if nothing else the president needed optics that showed him soberly listening and nodding his head when Tony Fauci and Deborah Birx spoke during the televised daily Task Force briefings.
That charade is over now. Fauci and Birx have returned to the back benches. The sycophants are front and center. The truth has become fake news and White House spin has become gospel.
There are some English words that seem quite clear. They do not require further explanation. Take for example, “always.” It does not mean sometimes or every time except this time. It means “always.”
Truth is one of those words. It should not need clarification. So why does the oath add the phrase “the whole truth.” Remember the declaration is ancient. If you do not buy the Roman version, the Greeks argued the phrase meant “third observer,” and Anglo-Saxon feudal lords required its knights to make a declaration of fealty.
Why did the ancients require the whole truth? Surely Lancelot did not try to spin Arthur or Merlin and the citizens of Camelot! Perhaps he did. What other explanation is there?
Ok maybe he did try to spin Guinevere!
In some cases, the spin is barely disguised. For example last week President Trump reversed himself and began to argue that Covid-19 testing is not necessary. His logic? Testing is really expensive and therefore no longer fits with his political agenda to make America great again, round two!
Two White House staffers had tested negative initially and then days later tested positive. He said: “...this is why testing isn’t necessary. We have the best testing in the world but testing is not necessarily the answer because we were testing them.”
The message: don’t worry about testing. It’s flawed. It will not protect you, so go to work.
The idea that Covid-19 could spread inside the West Wing was not consistent with his political agenda. Later in the week Trump called testing "somewhat overrated," and he told reporters that "in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."
And there is is. People should die so we do not look bad, so the White House does not look bad, so the president does look bad.
The whole truth is hard to find in some statehouses as well. The data has been sketchy from the outset. But it was not overly being suppressed.
Transparency has given away to expediency in places like Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis refused to release data on infections in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Why? Florida has reopened its beaches. It wants to fill them up. Covid-19 deaths look bad on television.
A Miami court has ordered the governor to turn over some of the data but it is incomplete and does not match data coming from the Medical Examiner’s office. DeSantis will not release the names of the Covid-19 dead as Florida law requires.
Why not? If you give a victim a name, you expose that they lived a life. That they were loved. That they loved. That they are mourned.
No name. No life. No messy emotion to interfere with a return to business as usual.
Florida is not the only state lacking transparancy. The “whole truth” is hard to find in many other states and municipalities.
Americans want to go to work. They want to go to the beach, a ballgame and a bar. They will go if they are told it is safe to do so. They need the truth so they can make informed decisions about their lives.
Politicians should renew their vow to tell the truth, including the inconvenient truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
They should take comfort that the bible upon which they place their left hand offers words of comfort:
“Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
Be Safe!
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