If I were to attempt to keep up with all the 2016 presidential campaign events and stories, I would need to write this blog full-time. That's not happening. Thus, I'm free to pick out only those events and stories that interest me.
On the Republican side, there's Donald Trump. I can't really see him as president of the country, but I do think a lot of what he says makes sense. No, not the stuff about all Muslims are bad people and that they should be rounded up and shipped out. I like the talk about having a secure border and about having a process by which if you want to come into America, you follow the rules. Period. If you don't follow the process, you can be called "illegal immigrants" and you can be sent back on your dime, not mine. I also think that he gets in trouble with his mouth and says things that are not nice. I think sweeping generalizations are a bad thing and Trump should cease making statements like "all Muslims are bad." Read more about Donald Trump here.
Before moving to the other side of the aisle, I want to write about my personal experience with hearing a specific sweeping generalization and then having that cloud my opinion of people with a specific character trait. For me, it wasn't Muslims. It was heavy metal fans with long hair. Let me explain. When I was in high school, Iron Maiden was playing a concert at the Five Seasons Center (now called the US Cellular Center) in downtown Cedar Rapids. For reasons I don't remember, I was at a (now closed) restaurant called Gringo's across the street with my mother. When she saw all the Iron Maiden concert attendees walking towards the door, she made a negative comment about people with long hair. It was the type of comment that I carried with me and made people with long hair intimidating to me to the extent that I thought they were all mean people. Of course, not every person with long hair is mean. It was easier to follow the intent of what my mother said to me and to make judgments about people than to approach a heavy metal fan with long hair and find out about that person.
On the Democrat side, there's Hillary Clinton. There are websites dedicated to documenting the lies she has told. At the Democratic debate on Saturday night, she apparently tole more, per this article. The other day, I read about how Politifact was debunking another claim she had made about videos of Trump being shown to recruit ISIS members, per this article.
I realize that lying is sometimes a matter of perspective. Ben Kenobi proved this when he explained that when he said that Darth Vader had betrayed and murdered Luke's father, it was true from a certain point of view. I get that. I don't get it when you knowingly say words that you know in your heart are not true. Was there ever really any evidence that a video had caused the Benghazi attack, when she said these words below? What about when she said that it wasn't a video to some people in her emails, which contradicted what she said publicly? Is that lying or is that telling people a portion of what they need to know? I don't have the answers.
Before ending this post with the video of Clinton's speech, I can think of several examples where lying would have benefited me. In all phases of my life, from youth to adulthood, telling a lie instead of the truth may have caused tears to not fall, anger to not explode, friendships to not flourish, better relationships with those around me, and quite frankly, changed the path I have followed in my life. Lies I have told, especially to myself, are the most damaging, especially when my actions followed the path laid out by the lie instead of the truth.
Here's the speech Clinton made.
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