‘I want to hold your hand’

Netnet Camomot

US First Lady Melania Trump won’t hold her husband’s hand, and it becomes news.

She and her husband, US President Donald Trump, arrived in Israel and, while walking along the red-carpeted tarmac, the hubby’s left hand was about to hold her right hand, but she swatted him off like the way we shoo away a fly.

Almost every Facebook news page posted its video and the one by Yahoo elicited this comment from FB user China Wilkinson: “That’s not what I see when I look at this video. He held out his hand and she tried to take hold of it but it was so tiny she couldn’t get a firm grasp.”

Now, that tiny hand—or his shoe size—is supposed to be a gauge for the size of a particular body part. Wink! Wink!

Some women probably wonder why she has chosen to stay with him. Well, had she chosen not to, she won’t be first lady today. Marriage does have its perks.

Meanwhile, there’s a sinkhole in front of Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida property which President Trump owns, and it inspires at least one non-fan to comment: “Sean Spicer wants to make it clear there is NOT a sinkhole in front of Mar-a-Lago… It is a Florida Swamp Center.”

Spicer is the White House press secretary who has been parodied by Melissa McCarthy on “Saturday Night Live,” no thanks to his controversial statements that may inspire question marks to hover above your head. There are times when the more he tries to correct himself, the more he seems to sink into a sinkhole. Such as that time when he compared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons to this: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

Oops!

Then, he tried to correct himself and said that Hitler “was not using the gas on his own people the same way Assad is doing.”

Oops again!

Then, he added that he wasn’t “trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust.”

That Holocaust killed six million Jews. If someone in this 21st century is trying to break that record, he should be stopped pronto.

Here in Pinas, the extrajudicial killings may not reach six million suspected drug users, pushers and dealers yet, but if mere suspicion is considered as sufficient justification to annihilate a Pinoy, well, justify pa more?

The truth should prevail over suspicion. There have been many victims already of the grapevine, gossip, lies, to the extent that some towns in Pinas have already enacted laws against rumormongering. For Barangay Capas in Binalonan, Pangasinan, it’s called the anti-tsismis ordinance. Barangay Captain Danilo Tabucol Sr. said, “Here in the Philippines, we are aware that issues created by gossipers or intriguers cause fight among friends, relatives or neighbors.”

A group may have its official rumormonger, so that it’s already common knowledge and comes with a warning: If you want everyone to know, just tell her.

Well, with people like the rumormonger, who needs social media?

Rotary has The Four-Way Test, in case you’re at a loss on how to certify someone as your group’s official rumormonger. The first question: Is it the truth?

Rumormongers, gossipers and intriguers love to spread lies in order to hide their own truth. So, beware.

The latest news yesterday, however, wasn’t a lie but the truth: 19 killed and about 50 injured at England’s Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert. The bomb exploded outside of the Arena as concertgoers were leaving the venue. Initial reports revealed it was a suicide attack.

There’s already so much hatred in the world, add to that the gossip that rumormongers love to spread, and it’s like, Why? Why, oh, why.

The people who believe in the gossip and the person spreading the gossip, is there a term for them? Gullible? Credulous? Suckers? There’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the emperor with new clothes…

And the person who chooses to stop the gossip is your friend. Your real friend. Your true friend. Your genuine friend. It’s never too late to realize who among the 7 billion people in the world you can truly trust.

Breaking news, however, always jolts the senses. Even if it’s as simple as First Lady Melania swatting off her hubby’s hand. Enter the gossiper’s mentality: Why is she not holding his hand?

The Beatles’ song comes to mind: “Oh please say to me/You’ll let me be your man/And please say to me/You’ll let me hold your hand/Now, let me hold your hand/I want to hold your hand.”