The recent election cycle gave off the “odor of mendacity.” For more than four years, we have been bombarded with “the big lie.” And, as if this didn’t reek of deceit, the newly elected vice president invented and then justified a false narrative of pet-eating Haitians. Venezuelans in Colorado and Hispanics everywhere are now vulnerable.

Religious leaders of the three major faiths have endorsed these mendacious men as “flawed vessels of truth.” Bearing false witness in America has become a pathway to righteousness.

We are all familiar with the excuse “The dog ate my homework.” That explanation just doesn’t pass the smell test. Nobody is safe in a society where falsehoods are accepted as fact. To wit: dogs everywhere, not just South Dakota, are vulnerable to false narratives.

The odor of mendacity has become a stench in America. It’s time to stop blaming the fetid odor on the dog; it’s something else in the room.

Kurt Lauenstein
Portland