The Expectation of Truth

Do we even expect our leaders to tell the truth anymore?

A few years ago, maybe a generation ago, the assumption that we made was that the boss wouldn't lie to us. If he did, he was a rotten guy. The good guys NEVER lie. They might not talk, but they would not lie.

Think about it: in those old movies, if the hero was being tortured, did he ever LIE to the bad guys? or did he just suffer in silence? He suffered. And when the Captain turned to the rest of the crew, did he say something like "Gentlemen, there is some kind of trouble in the engines, but we expect the Chief to get them back online shortly. In the meantime, I'll be continuing with my personal examination of the lifeboats" or did he say "Gentlemen, we've been hit below the waterline, we're taking on water and will surely sink. Prepare to abandon ship and my God have mercy on our souls."

The second sounds like an old movie, doesn't it? We expected our Scoutmaster, Priest, and Doctor to give it to us straight. If there was any 'bending of the truth' it would be in our best interests. Remember lines like, "Give it to me strainght, Doc, I can take it."

We don't expect that anymore, do we? We expect our Doctors to proscribe drugs that give the best sales incentives. We expect the Banker to lie to us about profits. We don't believe a word from our Goverment officials. I begin to understand why so many people are still willing to vote for George Bush. He lied to us over and over on many. many subjects (Iraq & WMD, Top Ten List of Lies, and whole lists of lies) and people still intend to vote for him.

Bluntly, He lied to us about why we are going to war. He sent almost one thousand young men and women to their deaths for no good reason. He lied to us about our taxes, about his drug use, his drinking and driving. At this point, if it turned up he was actually a woman named 'Georgette' I wouldn't be surprised.

And that's my point. We don't expect him to tell us the truth. We don't expect Kerry to tell the truth. Even if he is. We don't believe him. We don't believe the goverment when it tells us ANYTHING.

Or the banker, the scoutmaster, etc, etc, etc.

I'm sorry folks, I can't even joke about this one. It seems that the bad guy finally won one.

Good night, and thanks for listening.