How to Lie While Telling the Truth

Read the following opening paragraph of a Letter to the Editor of the Ocean Park Gazette in Southern California a while back. Note your reaction to the content. You will have a fundamental misapprehension of the situation without a lie actually having been told.


"Other Species May Pay Price for Dog Beach

"May 11 - Small vocal groups are pushing for unleashed, unfenced dog beaches in Santa Monica and Dockweiler (in El Segundo). Both of these locations include areas designated by the U.S. Government as protected for the snowy plover, a small bird that nests on the sands of certain west coast beaches. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the bird as "threatened" and the California Department of Fish and Game classifies the bird as a "species of special concern." "


Okay. Forget the "small vocal groups" dismissal of the proponents of the dog beach. (Note: Over 36% of American households include dogs. Not small and to my mind not vocal enough.) It's the second sentence I'm interested in.

The author says both of "these" places have snowy plovers. This is a true statement. But which places are 'these?" The proposed dog beach areas? Or the miles and miles of beach with the official names "Santa Monica Beach" and "Dockweiler Beach" See? Both Beaches-with-a-capital-"B" have snowy plovers on parts of them, not all over them, and not at all on the same part of the park as the beaches-with-a-small-"b."

This is a lie that is 100% true. Because English allows for pronouns like "these" without anybody but a composition teacher caring that 2 antecedents exist that could be confused and therefore require "the former" and "the latter" to clarify which is meant. So people reading this letter figure that selfish, thoughtless dog lovers are planning their doggy playground right in the middle of the habitat for a threatened species.

Innuendo is much more powerful than logic because it invites the collusion of the hearer's or reader's imagination. But it is a cheap shot by a small vocal group of selfish, thoughless dog haters who think a pluralistic society means making themselves into the royal "we."

Let me just say, representing 36% of the households, that we are not amused.

Mitt and the Setter

Rachel Maddow brought up a past incident about Mitt Romney that she says could haunt his campaign if he should get the nomination. It is old news now, but I agree with her that it goes right to the heart of his character.  For when does character show up more than in our dealings with the powerless?  Dogs, in their total loyalty and devotion, will take any treatment at the hands of their owners and continue to stick by them.  They give away all their "power" to their "leader."  And so, the "leader's" treatment of the creature reveals the heart of that person's qualities as a leader.  Even when the animal is not a pet, it can be damning, as the turkey-killing footage behind a smiling Sarah Palin showed.  She was indifferent to the killing.  She tried to brush it off saying she was unaware that it was happening behind her, but she was giving an interview from a turkey slaughterhouse, and so she was cavalier about the fact if not the footage.

Similarly, a man who can drive for hours with a miserable, frightened, supposedly beloved pet strapped to the roof of the car, shows that "father knows best" attitude that is deadly dangerous in a leader when coupled with an insensitivity to the suffering of others.