2017 was a year which saw the truth
objective empirical evidence-based
truth more battered and abused and at
any time in the history of our country.
At the hands of the most powerful figure
in our government
it was a year which saw the White House
enshrine alternative facts into the
American lexicon as justification for
what used to be simply called
old-fashioned falsehoods. There was a
year in which an unrelenting daily
assault on the constitutionally
protected free speech was launched by
the same White House, an assault that is
as unprecedented as it is unwarranted.
The enemy of the people
was how the President of the United
States called the Free Press in 2017. It
is a testament to the condition of our
democracy that our own president uses
words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin
to describe his enemies. It bears noting
that so fraught with malice was a phrase
enemy of the people that even Nikita
Khrushchev forbade its use telling the
Soviet Communist Party that the phrase
had been introduced by Stalin for the
purpose of quote, anihilating such
individuals unquote who disagreed with
the supreme leader. When a figure in
power reflexively calls any press that
doesn't suit him fake news, it is that
person who should be the figure of
suspicion not the press. Now we are told
via Twitter that today the president
intends to announce his choice for the
quote most corrupt and dishonest media
Awards. It beggars belief that an American
president would engage in such a
spectacle but here we are.  To call the
Russian matter a hoax as the president
has done so many times is a falsehood.
We know the attacks orchestrated by the
Russian government during the election
were real, they constitute a grave threat
to both American sovereignty and to our
national security. It is in the interest
of every American to get to the bottom
of this matter wherever the
investigation leads. Together, united in
this purpose to do our jobs under the
Constitution without regard to party or
party loyalty let us resolve to be
allies of the truth
and not partners in its destruction.
