If you don’t like what you hear

Sat., Sept. 15, 2018

Recently I have heard our president referring to the mass media as “an enemy of the people.” I am fairly certain that his education did not include the plays of the Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen.

Ibsen’s play, “An Enemy of the People,” deals with a local health official who, after advocating the use of the local hot springs as health spa, discovers later that the major industry of the community, a tannery, is leaching poisons into the springs. His publication of his findings leads to a mob attacking him for being an enemy of the people.

An enemy of the people then is any entity that presents and inconvenient truth that does not meet the needs of those who would benefit from the contrary. So, if you don’t like what you are hearing, label those who speak the truth as enemies of the people.

Terry Steiner

Sandpoint

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