There’s a marvelous old story of imagined persons chained in place by their legs and necks since childhood staring straight ahead at a blank wall in a darkened cave deep in the earth.

They see only the reflections and shadows on that blank wall and what they see are the projections of puppets and objects passing before a bright fire but the source is hidden from their sight and knowledge atop a wall behind them.

These shades, and echoes of sound, are their only truth; they know no more.

As in every good story of captivity, we require an escape from these “unkindly” shackles, and one person does crawl up a tunnel to the sunlight above, finding it difficult to comprehend the light, still preferring the familiar shadow world below, but soon, with some difficulty, realizing the shadowy images below are false, unreal, forms of misdirection, and he feels pity for those left behind.

The intent of this allegory is obvious. We are metaphorically shackled by what we fail to question and examine and learn.

Case in point – we have a national debate that has sadly reduced for many to which presidential candidate is worse for the nation. (I have a different view about Hillary than those who see it this way.) But, in the debate of who is worse, Donald Trump is winning hands down.

It’s not just about who may win, although that is what we talk about almost 24/7.

Speaker Ryan fears he would win fewer House seats if he opposed Trump.

Senator McCain fears he can only win his Senate Primary if he supports Trump.

Many shun Trump but don’t oppose him because they want to win this congressional seat or that senate seat.

These are the shadows on our public wall that we stare at day by day. Continue reading →