ISIS, Ebola — Americans can handle the truth

The Ebola virus is not a threat, but ISIS is. That’s what some of our leaders tell us. Should we believe them? Do they have a track record for truth-telling that would lend them credibility?

ISIS hasn’t (yet) invaded America, but Ebola has. We are bombing ISIS in Syria, but treating Ebola here as an interloper that can be controlled. There is nothing to worry about. No need to panic. Pay no attention to the disease behind the curtain. Experts are in charge and we must always trust our experts. Do you? I sure don’t.

Sometimes it seems the priority of our elected officials and experts is self-protection rather than the protection of the public, which they are supposed to serve. We only know what they tell us. We presume they have access to accurate information, but we only get their version of the truth.

Government officials testify before congressional committees and either deny responsibility for their own incompetence and malfeasance, blame others, hide behind the all-purpose “mistakes were made,” or take the Fifth. A few accept “responsibility,” but only in rare cases does anyone lose their job, unless their transgressions are so glaring they can’t be ignored, like Julia Pierson, former director of the Secret Service. If politicians and bureaucrats protected us the way they protect themselves, there would be no need to fear Ebola, ISIS or anything else.

In the case of Ebola, our leaders want us to remain unconcerned. They have it under control, they say. And yet infected people keep popping up. Not to worry, they say. We can trust West African nations to examine those leaving their countries, even though it appears we can’t. Thomas Eric Duncan managed to get out of Liberia and travel to the U.S. with relative ease.

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