When Is A Lie Not A Lie?
It may be old fashioned, but I think a lie is always a lie.
There are little white lies like those told to spare the feelings of others. There are big black lies like those that cause serious damage. There are lies of commission and lies of omission; lies to cover up something, and lies to cover other lies. All the euphemisms in the world – spin, slant, rationalization - all the terms people use to call a lie something else, do not change a lie into truth. Just as a rose by any other name is still a rose; a lie by any other name is still a lie.
We see one example of dishonesty after another marching across our TV screens and shouting at us from newspaper headlines. Duplicity is rampant in government and business. Cheating is accepted by our young people in college as a justifiable tool for getting ahead. Woe is us if they carry this attitude with them as they move forward into careers in business and government.
The President, who claims the title Decider models dishonesty by lying and then compounding his lying by lying about why he lied in the first place. I guess that is what he decided to do. His chosen ones, Chaney and Rumsfeld as Vice-Decider and Defense Decider have been caught in lies repeatedly but strangely, there have rarely been any consequences. Even Rumsfeld’s overdue resignation was framed as an unjust demand by a war weary country. It seems as if we, as a nation, have developed an easy acceptance of lying.
Now we have the Attorney General playing artful dodger in a not so artful way. How can we swallow that? Isn’t the position of Attorney General one in which even the appearance of impropriety is not acceptable? What is our recourse to truth and justice if not the United States Department of Justice?
In what galaxy is it all right for Gonzales to continue to tap dance around the truth and for President Bush to continue to put what he seems to think of as “loyalty” before all other virtues? What about honor, integrity, and good old fashioned right and wrong?
How can we continue to excuse or minimize lies instead of insisting on accountability? This is not a matter of payback or politics. It is a necessity to restore faith in our government. How dare these people lie to us and undermine the very foundations of our democracy. We need to return to our roots where our values are evident in how we live our lives and we need to demand no less from our government.