Every honest senator, representative and member of the media must finally condemn the lies

The lies began at Donald Trump’s inauguration — the lie that the crowds were the biggest ever, bigger than at Barack Obama’s inauguration. Two days later, Kellyanne Conway coined her phrase “alternative facts.” The world snickered, some grimaced.

Later, the lies escalated, around Covid-19: that it would just go away “like the flu,” that we “were turning the corner” on the pandemic while cases and deaths hit new records every day.

Now, the most dangerous lie of all has been repeated so often that more than one half of Republicans believe it: that the election was stolen from Donald Trump and he really won in a landslide.

The truth, of course, is that Trump lost in a fair election by more than 70 electoral votes and by more than 7 million popular votes. But Trump voters who do not accept this remain enthralled by Trump’s lies, lies we tolerated for four years and more — beginning, really, with his insistence that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. They will not listen to the litany of Republican officials, including the U.S. attorney general, the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (part of Homeland Security), governors, and state election officials, who have all repeatedly said there were no irregularities that would have changed the outcome of the election.

As an attorney, as a father and as a citizen, I have tried to build my life around the truth. I watched in shock as the nation’s capital was attacked by people fueled by lies. Lies repeated not just by Donald Trump, and by enablers like Rudy Giuliani, but by media and by other elected officials, including senators and congressional representatives. The cost of pandering to “alternative facts” is now painfully apparent. Sen. Mitt Romney said it simply: “The best way we can show respect for the voters who were upset is by telling them the truth...President–Elect Joe Biden won this election. President Trump lost.”

Now, the truth and facts must be spoken without equivocation by all responsible elected representatives and senators as well as by the media. It is time for a bi-partisan resolution of the House and the Senate to repudiate the lie that the election was stolen, and to reject the new lie that Antifa and outsider infiltrators rather than Trump supporters were to blame for Wednesday’s chaos.

We must hold one another accountable to the truth: our democracy depends on it.

Matthew Brown, Lincoln Park

Even Russian dissident calls it censorship

When one of the few people speaking against big tech’s bans is the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned by Russian leaders, it should be a wake up call.

“I think that the ban of Donald Trump on Twitter is an unacceptable act of censorship,” Navalny said in an 11-part Twitter thread. “Don’t tell me he was banned for violating Twitter rules. I get death threats here every day for many years, and Twitter doesn’t ban anyone (not that I ask for it).”

“Of course, Twitter is a private company,” Navalny continued. “But we have seen many examples in Russian and China of such private companies becoming the state’s best friends and the enablers when it comes to censorship.”

But oh no! This paper and so many others are cheering on this disaster in the making!

Bill Stecich, West Lawn

Too little and late from Pence

I applaud Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to subvert the Electoral College pro-forma certification of the election results in order to keep President Donald Trump in office. However, I will never forgive his four long years of loyal service and subservience to the president. He also bears considerable responsibility for the total failure of the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

May Pence just fade away. He deserves no better.

Mary F. Warren, Wheaton

Mob was GOP base

Let’s make no mistake. Those who attacked the U.S. Capitol are the Republican Party base. Though many in the GOP are now trying to distance themselves from that fact, these people are the supporters they covet and pander to.

Stephen Kaufman, Urbana

Elected school board more democratic

A Sun-Times editorial on Monday argued against the Illinois Legislature voting to approve an elected school board for Chicago, saying the issue cannot be fairly debated during the pandemic. But, in fact, this issue has been publicly debated by teachers, parents and the Legislature for decades and needs to be resolved.

An appointed board or hybrid board — some elected members and some appointed — takes the decision-making powers out of the hands of the most effected stakeholders in the public school system. It leaves the decision-making in the hands of politically appointed members, with or without public input.

John Obeda, West Andersonville