News-Record.com

By Anne Snoek

City Manager Mitchell Johnson mentioned in a column in the News & Record on Nov. 2 that his first core value was honesty. It doesn't look like the core is inside of him: where is his honesty?

There are different ways of lying to people. One is to tell a flat-out, linear lie: I was driving 95 mph and I tell the cop I was driving 65 mph.

The form of dishonesty I want to address is Johnson's form, which creates illusions by putting two or more things together in one phrase that don't belong together.

In the News & Record article Johnson says, "After I reviewed the RMA report, I decided I had to ask (former police Chief David) Wray to explain the differences between what I had been told by him and the documented information in the report. Rather than respond to my questions, Wray instead resigned." That is called creating an illusion.

What really happened was that Johnson had the locks on Chief Wray's office door changed on Friday, Jan. 6. Wray, having had his power systemically weakened for the past two months by being robbed of his ability to hire, fire, promote or demote, could not even get into his own office to do any more work. Powerless and humiliated, he resigned on the very next business day, and went to get help for the police department.

To use an analogy: Someone tells us that Julie screamed when the sun came out. Julie may well have screamed when the sun came out, and Wray may well have resigned after not responding to Johnson's questions. But to pursue our analogy, Julie did not scream because the sun came out; she screamed because she dropped a can of peas on her foot in the kitchen.

And Wray did not resign because he would not respond to Johnson's questions but because he was locked out of his office.

So Johnson's statement, though not containing linear lies, is full of illusion. And that is why the public has become deeply suspicious of him.

Who is to know when he is creating illusions elsewhere?

The writer lives in Greensboro.