I've known you for a few years, not very well, but, as we're both musicians, I see you quite frequently for gigs around town here and there. I always love seeing you, and enjoy keeping up with you and your life as one of your friends on Facebook. I can tell from the things you post that you and I hold different opinions on things, and I'm ok with that, because differences in opinion don't really matter all that much, and they're certainly not reasons to not be real life friends.
But, do you know what does matter that much?
Truth.
Integrity.
The desire to be a peacemaker.
Since you are, as I am, a professing Christian, I would think that these things would be important to you, but I have to say that when you deleted my comments on your latest post, you really changed my opinion of you and, sadly.....reaffirmed the very thing that I believe is destroying our nation.
Today, you reposted someone else's post of several pictures of President George W. Bush with members of our military.....shaking hands, saluting, visiting the wounded at their bedside, etc... Underneath these pictures was a caption reading "Have you seen pictures like this in the last 7 years?" Implying that our current president, President Barack Obama, doesn't shake hands, salute, visit, or generally associate at all with our service men and women. If common sense isn't enough to make you aware, a simple Google search will reveal that this simply isn't true of our current president. Clearly, the intent of your post was to shame this president and/or show your disapproval of him. That's fine. That is your right. But doing it by implying falsehoods is.....pretty low.
Since you are a Facebook friend, you know that I do not talk politics on my page and rarely, if ever take sides on hot button issues. My politics are my business, and yours are yours, however, truth......that is something that should be important to all people no matter what their politics are.
So, in an effort to speak truth, I responded to this question of "Have you seen pictures like this in the last 7 years?" by saying that, while I wasn't choosing sides in saying this, I had, in fact seen pictures like that in the last 7 years, and I proceeded to post several pictures of Barack Obama doing exactly what it was your pictures had shown President Bush doing....shaking hands, saluting, visiting the wounded. In my comment I asked why today, of all days (It is 9/11 - Patriot Day) you would choose to post something with the intent of causing division.......choosing sides....pitting parties and affiliations against each other.....defaming a person with an implied statement that wasn't even true. I posted my comment and my pictures, half expecting them to be deleted or met with a nasty response. And in just a matter of minutes, you did in fact delete them. I must say, I was extremely disappointed, but not surprised.
Rather than have your opinion challenged, you would choose to delete truth? You would rather spread lies about someone you don't like instead of spreading truth that reflects well on both the former and current presidents and highlights our service men and women? You would delete my comments so that the hundreds of friends that see your Facebook page would be denied the ability to see that truth?
Why? Why did you choose that? Why would you willingly perpetuate lies? Why would you choose to foster division and finger pointing over peace, on a day when we remember our country's most unifying tragedy?
I'm not here to talk politics, or compare administrations.....I could make long lists of pros and cons for both these men, but that is not the point. The point is this: all other issues aside, your post implied that President Obama, unlike President Bush, does not associate with, appreciate, or respect our military, and no matter how either of us feel, that is clearly not true - whether you like the man or not.
The fact that you would choose to promote untruths that are meant to polarize us over the truth, speaks volumes to me. What does it say about us as a people when promoting our own opinions, agendas, and false statements becomes so much more important to us than actual truth, that we will literally, and intentionally, DELETE.....erase.....cover up.....hide.....and discard the TRUTH?
As a Christian, this saddens me.
The bible talks about exchanging the truth for a lie.
We are called to be salt and light in this world.
We are called to be peacemakers.
We are supposed to be lovers of truth.
Jesus said that he is the truth.......and you deleted the truth.
I don't know how to reconcile that.
I don't know how you can.
This won't keep me from being your friend.......I mean, I won't unfriend you. You might unfriend me, but that's up to you. I still care about you and like keeping up with you and your life, but I do hope that in the future you will show more integrity when posting things to your page.
And for the sake of Christ, choose to promote truth.....even when you don't like it.