Moving from educational issues to the world of political issues….
We live in a political world where the belief is that if you tell citizens something often enough, citizens will come to believe what they have been told is the truth. We were told that tobacco doesn’t harm our health. The John Kerry Swift Boaters come to mind as do the “birthers” who believe that President Obama was not born in the United States
What is troubling about this is that it seems that the “facts” or “truth” about something makes little or no difference regarding what some people choose believe. Obama’s birth certificate won’t necessarily change a “birther’s” view of reality. What is it that makes people hold onto their beliefs, no matter what?
Speaking untruths or saying anything they want to say, has been justified by many as simply exercising their First Amendment Right to free speech. For this group, free speech trumps factually verifiable and responsible speech.
Things have gone so far down this road that we, now, have to rely on “fact checking” services to know if what is being said about a candidate, issue or proposition is accurate. In fact, we are being warned “voters beware.” In effect, we are being treated as consumers and not as citizens.
Is this dishonesty something that our country can withstand? And, at what cost? Do the ends really justify the means? When George W. Bush told us that we invaded Iraq because they were a threat to our security due to having weapons of mass destruction, the American people believed what they were being told and supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Then we were told that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq United States
In truth, if we cannot believe what we are being told by those who represent us, our trust and confidence in our leaders is destroyed. Where does such a sense of betrayal leave us?
Our Constitution was written to create a secure structure within which citizens are protected from those who would take away their rights, liberty and jeopardize their welfare. Within the structure of our Constitution, government is meant to protect us from those who would cause us harm. Our elected leaders swear to uphold this Constitution and its pledge to the American citizen, so help them God.
We have those who believe government restrictions deprive citizens from reaching their potentials in life. Others feel that business regulations are “un-American.” Even after 2008, there are those who insist that we should “let the market correct itself.” The truth is that there are those like Bernard Madoff and before him Charles Keating who only cared about themselves. Without regulations we have had the Savings and Loan, Tyco, World Com, Enron and sub-prime disasters.
People’s lives were devastated by these attempts to take advantage of the unprotected. Jobs, investments, retirement programs and saving were wrenched away from the unsuspecting victims of these deliberate fraudulent acts. So the lesson is that we do need regulations to safeguard citizens.
In time dishonesty rots the very foundation of trust that the Constitution was intended to instill in citizens. If we cannot trust our institutions and our leaders, what are we left to believe or do? To whom are we to turn to find an alternative to the injustices that have been experienced? Might today’s Wall Street protests be a beginning in the process of addressing the dishonesty and injustices that have been experienced by a betrayed Main street?
Might our present economic uncertainty, in part, be due to our distrust in those very institutions that caused our economic disaster in the first place? As the pithy Mollie Ivins might have said, who wants to trust someone who already has screwed us once?
Thanks for checking in.
Namaste,
Jim Farwell
