Words are cheap. They can also be deadly if used improperly. One of our tasks and opportunities as human beings, endowed with brains capable of critical thinking, is to learn to discern what is to be believed and trusted and what is not.

During the run-up to a recent presidential election, a cartoon appeared in a national magazine. It showed a flock of sheep grazing on a hillside. In view of the flock was a large billboard showing a wolf wearing a business suit, smiling and flashing sharp, white teeth. The message below the picture of the wolf read, “I am going to eat you!”

Since it was a cartoon, the sheep could talk (as could the wolf pictured on the signboard). Obviously impressed with what he was reading, one sheep said to another, while glancing toward the billboard, “He says what h…