Mason Locke Weems wrote a blockbuster biography of our first president: The Life of Washington. In one edition, he added a story about Washington chopping down a cherry tree and refusing to lie about it when caught.
The story was a lie.
Weems wanted schoolchildren to learn a lesson about honesty, so he lied.
I was taught that lie in elementary school.
I prefer George Bluth Sr’s way of teaching lessons and lying to children:
On this President’s Day, I’m ruminating about Presidents and lying and hypocrisy.
Each day, the news shows me Republicans railing against waste and fraud, while wasting our money with fraudulent claims.
An unelected appointee keeps committing crimes (e.g. accessing and sometimes sharing confidential information; impounding) with no oversight and then explains to reporters that he has to, because unelected employees were acting without oversight, despite the employees having had oversight (the overseers are fired).
The President signed an order to “protect women,” while threatening women’s right to vote, to serve in the military, to have agency over their own bodies, to not be discriminated against in hiring, to be seen as professionals instead of DEI hires, to have medical studies that include us, to have medical studies on problems unique to us…
At least Weems had good intentions.
