What to tell children?

Here’s a proposal. Set out these three comparisons for your school-age children to look at. Two photographs showing two inauguration crowds (Obama 2009, Trump 2017) taken from the same perspective; two bar graphs showing total subway ridership (Obama 2009, Trump 2017) for two inaugurations; and two numbers that represent television viewership (Obama 2009, Trump 2017) for two inaugurations.

Tell your children that President Trump said his inauguration crowd was the largest in the history of inaugurations. Ask your children to choose which of the photos, graphs and numbers show that the president is speaking the truth. Next, explain to your intelligent children that they are wrong. Most likely children will respond “Why are you lying to me?”

Next, explain to your inquisitive children why truth does not matter to our president in this case because (fill in the blank) is more important than the truth. “Why won’t the people that are close to President Trump help him understand the truth?” your children ask empathetically.

My response is that for all I know, they are trying to help but have not yet been successful. And my children respond, “Can we go back to playing our PS4 game?”

Anthony Seman

Coeur d’Alene