By Wayne Dominowski, SBA Guest Commentary
(SB) – Have you ever seen or read an obituary in which the deceased was described as a no-good scoundrel, a thief, sadist, a terrible father or mother, a trouble-maker, or any one of countless other such recriminations, denunciations, or other imputations? No? Neither have I.
At the same time, and to be fair, every obituary I’ve ever read was and has been laden with praise, words of kindness, good works, Christian values, and descriptions worthy of a saint. The only attributions left out was walking on water, feeding 5,000 people out of a small basket, raising the dead, curing leprosy, halting a furious storm at sea, and rising from death and ascending into heaven.
It’s this way, I think, because we humans do things like this… we are known to say one thing, and mean another.
Maybe that’s what is meant when we say, R-I-P (Rest In Peace)? In other words, for all a person’s faults, moral missteps, transgressions, and everything else each of us goes through in a lifetime, we hope the deceased are granted peace in the next world because they’ve already gone through hell here on earth.
In a way, R-I-P is our way of saying, “Let bygones be bygones,” -- or, at the same time, could it be that we know we ourselves have faults, committed indiscretions, transgressions, wrongdoings, and had vices that somehow, someway, we’ll be called upon to answer for, or worse, written about upon our passing?
I don’t know. Do you?
Often times, we come to realize we live in a cockeyed world. You’ve experienced it, and I’ve experienced it. Goofiness never stops, not does stupidity. Both are with us for the long haul.
What I do know is that honesty isn’t always the best policy. I mean, growing up, I listened and believed the story about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, and later admitting to his dad: ‘Father, I cannot tell a lie, I did it,’ or something to that affect. That was an endearing fable, passed off as truth. The reality of such incidents often reveal a different story. In other words, I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned that being blunt with facts has consequences. Try it and see what happens.
No, I’m not advocating we all tell it like is, or think or believe it is, about someone that we know a lot about and keep it to ourselves. That would probably result in a lonely and isolated life. Doing so, you may as well live in a cave on a remote island in the company of birds, reptiles, trees, and live it all by your little old self.
From everything I’ve read in history, the only person I know of that told the truth was Jesus Christ. Crowds listened to His message; His enemies, on the other hand, hated Him for calling out corruption, arrogance, and evil-doers, and were bent on getting rid of him. Jesus told the truth and was crucified for it.
Standing before Pontius Pilate, who asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Christ’s words, even before being confronted by Pilate, were: “I am the way and the truth and the life…no one comes to the Father but through me.” He could say that; we can’t. Christ lived the truth; we don’t.
When asked by Good Morning Britain in August 2024 about Donald Trump and whether he was afraid of the Republican, Rob Reiner replied: “I’m afraid of what he is, and what he represents, and the forces that are behind him, which is this white Christian nationalism and this authoritarianism that he seems to be fine to embrace.
“I don’t think he has any real ideology. I don’t think he cares about anything; he only cares about himself. It’s all about self-aggrandisement and self-enrichment.
“He is a criminal, and the people who are supporting him and the movement that is supporting him see him as a vessel to being able to get what they want.”
Rob Reiner’s criticism of Donald Trump stretched back to Trump’s first term in office. In a 2017 interview with Variety, Reiner said he believed Trump was “mentally unfit” to serve as president and described him as the “single most unqualified human being to ever assume the presidency of the United States.”
Rob, a very good actor, and later director/film-maker, stood out at what his talent afforded him. He was successful. I wish he had stuck to his craft. When he came out with his hatred of Donald Trump, it diminished his accomplishments.
On Dec. 14, 2025, Rob (78) and his wife Michele (70), were found murdered in their LA apartment. Their second son, Nick – who has a long history of drug abuse – was subsequently arrested for the murders.
When asked for his thoughts on Reiner, President Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood.”
“Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” Trump wrote.
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before,” the president wrote.
“May Rob and Michele rest in peace!” Trump concluded.
When Rob made his comments about Trump in Aug. 2024, not a word was spoken regarding Reiner’s statements. Nothing. Silence. No one questioned Reiner, no one asked him why he felt the way he did, nor did anyone even attempt to question what he based his “thoughts” on… you know, things like facts, evidence, documentation, testimony, and substantiation?
Trump, being asked his thoughts on Reiner, responded based on Reiner’s comments about Trump. He said what he felt, and what he thought, based on what he knew of Rob’s views about Trump that had been expressed.
What was Trump expected to say?
In retrospect, you and I have been fully exposed to all of Trump’s detractors. We’ve watched clips of Trump bashing, Trump name-calling, Trump accusations. We’ve watched Trump endure endless, personal assaults, attempts on his life, but never heard one – not one – apology for any one of thousands of verbal accusations proven to be false, totally without merit, or a retraction. Instead, after false claims were exposed and debunked, it was on to the next baseless assault.
I’ll leave you with these quotes about honesty and truthfulness.
“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”
--Noel Coward
“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it’ll always get you the right ones.”
--John Lennon
“An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.”
--Ayn Rand
“Honour belongs to those who never forsake the truth even when things seem dark and grim, who try over and over again, who are never discouraged by insults, humiliation, and even defeat.” --Nelson Mandela
And, finally, if we’ve learned anything from our media today, it’s that the legacy media has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. They lost it by continuously calling wolf.
