Margaret and I had a reason to be on a balcony facing the Eastern mountains from the fourth floor of our building.  The mountains, serious mountains, begin not very far from where we have lived for thirty years.  San Diego County which hugs Mexico's north western border is an amazing part of the world.  I feel fortunate to live in such a place.  The President of the United States apparently would like citizens of the U.S.A. to develop a fear and perhaps a distaste for the country just south of where I live.  Among many other reasons to be alarmed by the President's appointments and tweets is his penchant for telling untruthful stories that he surely knows will be exposed to be lies.  

The danger to the country, and perhaps to the world is that the U.S.A. has become know as a stable, powerful place of order.  We are a nation with divergent political ideas, but we have been a nation that usually manages the differences with grace.  We are known as a country where truth is valued. This President is interjecting into the national and even into the world order a sense that truth can be made to be whatever the administration and the Congress with the most power declares it to be.  Those of us who value veracity and truth-telling must continue to insist that lies promoted by people in power are still lies.  We must insist that newspapers and other media sources tell us truth.  We citizens must recognize untruth and insist that we do not believe lies.  We must continue to insist that media shall remain free to state truth and to give all people freedom to disagree with those who have political power.