By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

This is a contentious time in the United States. While I am not happy with the actions of our new president, I feel it is important to reflect on two things when reading the many executive orders and potential legislation coming from the White House. Some people will find my thoughts controversial, but they in no way discount the actions of the current administration with which I disagree. But many commentators have been writing about those, while others have offered excellent ways for people to deal with the upsetting emotions they currently feel. However, given what happened during the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, I feel it is important for us to remember these two things.
1) Do not automatically assume that everything the Trump administration does will be objectionable. Yes, I’ve had difficulty with almost all of the executive orders that have been issued by the White House, but I realize that I need to look at each of them separately and objectively. In addition to allowing me to decide which issues need my immediate focus, I may discover ones with which I do not disagree.
Before you claim that will never happen, please remember what occurred during the Obama administration. When some people were asked if they supported Obamacare, they said, “No.” When asked if they supported an “Affordable Care Act,” which was its real name, they said, “Yes.” The first reaction came because some people refused to believe that anything that Obama did could be worthwhile. They risked losing something important because they could not believe the president had anything to offer them. 
The same was true of many actions done by Biden. For example, some people objected to his attempts to reduce student loans by saying that financial forgiveness should have focused on reducing medical debt. One does not preclude the other, especially if we had national healthcare like almost every other first world nation. That meant that once again two groups in need were being pitted against each other, rather than working together to help everyone.
2) Make certain that any quotes you post on Facebook or other social media sites are correct. “It sounds like something he would say” is not good enough. Newspapers fact check Trump and often find that something he said is inaccurate or simply false. We can’t call him or his administration on those inaccuracies if we are not going to do the same for our statements.
Snopes, www.snopes.com, is an excellent resource for those looking to fact check a quote or article. Sometimes the answer is that a statement is simply true or false. But where Snopes does its best work is when what occurred is open to debate. It’s those nuances to which we need to pay attention, particularly because the current administration tends to paint everything with a large brush, for example, refusing to make distinctions between different members of a group. You can also sign up for its newsletter, which offers information about controversial events currently occurring. To be truly effective, we have to know the real facts and be willing to admit when something is more complex than we first thought.
I know this is not what many people want to hear. Please remember, I am not suggesting that there isn’t a great deal of work to be done to support what I see as the true ideals of our country and I’m sure I’ll be writing about that in future issues of the paper. (I already have a folder with potential oped topics.) I also know that I am asking us to be better than those who turn and twist the truth or are willing to make up stories in order to support their ideas. But if we want to help our country, we must do it the right way: by being willing to admit when someone else has a good idea, even if we don’t like them, and to hold our speech to the highest ethical standards possible.