At a typical Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting, there is a time right after all the official business has been conducted, and right before the public is permitted to address the commissioners with comments or concerns, that the commissioners themselves comment on whatever they so wish. To be honest, this is oftentimes the most interesting part of the meetings, as it is not unusual for the three commissioners to do some rather intense verbal sparring with one another.

One such meeting was on Tuesday, January 12th. Commissioners Scott Metzger and Tony Mussare were there in person, and Commissioner Rick Mirabito was on the telephone with his voice being broadcast in the room. The business part of the meeting was concluded, and they transitioned into the commissioner comments section. Commissioners Metzger and Mussare largely highlighted recent economic news in the community as some promising businesses were opening up.

Commissioner Mirabito’s comments were last, and he also noted his encouragement with good economic news but then hesitated for a moment before remarking, “Well, it’s interesting that no one has brought up the 800-pound gorilla in the room, which is what happened in the Capitol Building last Wednesday.”

That kicked off quite an engaging debate on matters such as the number of arrests made in Washington, D.C. compared to the arrests made in those that happened in the rioting throughout the country this summer, as well as the legitimacy of these different ‘demonstrations.’ This discussion essentially fell along party lines; Commissioner Mirabito voicing what is largely heard from Democratic sources and Commissioners Metzger and Mussare from the Republican side.

Not to declare a plague on both their houses, but each side quoted facts and statistics that could be declared technically true but also could be subject to interpretation. President Bill Clinton once taught us about how words can be very flexible in his famous statement when questioned by a grand jury concerning Monica Lewinsky. Concerning his relationship with her, he was asked about the testimony that he had no sex of any kind, in any manner, shape, or form. Is that correct? He responded, “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”

In the Commissioners’ debate, Mr. Metzger wanted to differentiate between what he cited “two to three million people” who came to demonstrate and the couple of hundred vandals who broke into the Capitol Building. He emphasized strongly that the very vast majority were peaceful.

But what Commissioner Metzger neglected to mention is that those peaceful folks were also mad as hell, or they would not have been there in the first place. It was more of a protest than a demonstration. As President Lincoln (who understood and used the English language better than any president) noted that you could call a horse’s tail a leg, but it is still a tail. The demonstration was a giant billboard to the country that something needed to be done about the damage that has happened to our voting system in the United States.

Commissioner Mirabito shot back that “fifty courts determined there was no fraud in the election.” He later admitted that the elections were fair and that the courts came up empty. Again, this is a tail being called a leg. Courts are legal instruments that can only make decisions based on law. They did not determine there was no fraud; what they did was rule that there was not enough evidence that a crime had been committed. It is one thing to know something is true; it is another to be able to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

There is a mountain of evidence of election fraud; whether it would have swung the election will be debated for decades. To claim that there has been no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election whatsoever is to bring back images of Iraqi Information Officer nicknamed Baghdad Bob, who was telling international reporters emphatically, “There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!” And in the background, there are American tanks visibly rolling in the street behind him.

The march on Washington, D.C. on January 6th had various names, but the overall thrust was an emphatic call to secure election security. A few yahoos and possibly some instigators hijacked an extremely large march of concerned Americans (estimates run from hundreds of thousands to millions), pleading to be heard. The rhetoric that took over the County Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday, January 12th, is an example of how far we are from an honest discussion about an essential element of our democracy: full, free, and fair elections.