By Hipolito Navarrete, Managing Editor/Publisher

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.” Aristotle

Hyperbole has become a go to necessity for folks that need to sell something; food, cars, entertainment and politics. There is and there have possibly been very few people that you can have a conversation where there is no exaggeration when they need something from others. Those conversations where there is no hyperbole, logical fallacies, ad hominem, circular reasoning, appeal to ignorance, false dilemma, equivocation, appeal to hypocrisy only happen when the only reason for the conversation is the conversation. “The tree is green, but it seems to be turning brown.” “ Yes, I notice that. May be it has to do with the change in seasons.” That’s very probable.” By this time folks are probably thinking why that conversation? It is so boring. And that is the ignored choice of being honest and transparent. People want to believe that the world is full of wonders and opportunities. That no matter how some suffer, there is a way, even if they have to pay a price for it. And we have accepted any price as long as we the consequences of poor decisions do not affect us individually even if they have disastrous effects on those around us. We have become a people willing to allow pleasure and comfort to guide our choices and we use all types of verbal judo to justify our dangerous to others decisions.

What is it that we need to do? We need to slow down and consider decisions that we make and how they affect others, because others affect us individuals. When we start considering the fallout to our friends, our families, our neighbors because of some of the choices we want to justify because well, YOLO, that life won’t be worth living.

There is a war on facts and those that have the facts correct are losing to emotional dribble that want folks to feel something without taking into account where these emotions lead. We need to start with the accurate usage of words. Using words accurately will certainly help with the main point of communication, and if we did this, the world would become a little bleaker and boring, or we would just give more jobs to those we are know are poets and live for making people’s hearts bleed. The politicians should be less court jesters and more dignified members of the body politic, folks that can help us see accurately the state of affairs and how to lead us to a better place for the communities, not just those that pay to hear them lie and people need to be less self centered and must make sure that the community is served by these folks that will take money from the public but will not work for all.