Lies

I recently discovered someone in a position of authority lied. Not a little lie. Not a white lie. He told me something very specific, then walked into a a meeting with five other people and denied he'd said it. There was no miscommunication. There was no alternate way to interpret what happened. I wasn't drunk or suffering from a concussion when he told me this. I hadn't been struck on the head with a hammer. I didn't have amnesia. None of the above. He lied. End of story.

At this stage in my life, I don't think, for example, cops, firefighters, principals, teachers, CEOs, presidents, or even priests and ministers, are immune from being unscrupulous. They're human. Robes or collars or badges don't have magic powers. But for ME, abuse of power invokes a whole set of fictional scenarios. Because with all due respect for the terrifying serial killer books out there, what strikes fear in ME when I read are those books where someone is on trial for their life . . . and they are being set-up. People are lying on the witness stand, being bought off. Or a prosecutor refuses to look at a different scenario. You need only watch Law & Order--or read the paper--to see innocent people railroaded. Or to see the guilty go free. But to me, it would be absolutely TERRIFYING if (knock wood) one of my kids was set-up, if I was set up . . . if a friend was . . . it's a morass that has got to be a nightmare you wish you could wake up from--but can't.

Sometimes, terror and nightmares aren't the kinds of sick torture scenarios with serial killers eating brains--I mean, heck yeah . . . scary. But to me, it is sometimes it's the things that humans do--that then snowball. The woman who says she was raped, or that her kids were kidnapped--and innocent men get questioned or even imprisoned. The little white lie that then becomes an alibi for a guilty man. Those are the kinds of things that REALLY scare me.

Along with clowns.

But that's a discussion for another day.

Thoughts?