I know that seems like a whole lot of trouble and may be frustrating at times. Active participation in our system of government by the citizens is either going to be revived or we are headed down the wrong path altogether. If we can't take the time the people who will take it will control things and that can hurt a lot. Our interests in this nation are so varied and widely spread across a spectrum of needs and wants that nothing we do collectively will meet them all. Those whose interests are ignored are those who participate the least. That has always been the nature of our democracy and our Republic reflects that fact today. The people who believe in privilege and the interests of those who own more than most of us are running our government today. They always run our financial institutions and they often run much of the rest of our society. Since the Revolutionary War with the British that has not always been the case with the government. Liberal ideals relate to ownership of more than political offices, they relate to the distribution of rights and privileges throughout society. Education is a right of every citizen and our society badly needs everyone to know the difference between truth and a lie. Lies are more easily discernable to the educated and thoughtful among us.

Even as a child I was amazed at the human capacity for lying. Kids are great liars and some have a really hard time separating the lies from the truth. The age of reason was the separating point when I was a kid. Somewhere around the magical age of seven we are all supposed to reach the point in life where we finally really know the difference between reality and fantasy. Of course psychological science has advanced a lot since that time and now we know that some of us never reach that point at all while others take a lot longer than the age of seven to get there. There is something magical about the truth but it can really be hard to arrive at in complex things like government. One person's truth can often be another person's fantasy. Religion is like that too, some among us are absolute believers in one doctrine or another, while others are more skeptical. That is why religion is so carefully separated from government by our Constitution, to allow for all of the variety in beliefs that exist in this vast blended population. Outright lying can be a deucedly difficult thing to catch regarding to financial issues and matters of war and peace. It is our obligation as citizens to make those discernments.

Why does it matter if the people who govern us lie to us either deliberately or through an untested belief of theirs? It is hugely important because we live in a big and dangerous world full of people who envy our wealth and power. Only the truth can allow us to make the choices about our policies accurately and carefully. It is always a mistake to base a policy on a lie, history should teach us that if nothing else. I am afraid that many of the people in this nation have come to accept that lying is a necessary part of government. That is the biggest lie of all, that the people can't handle the truth. We are a stronger nation and a healthier people when the truth is the general approach taken by our leaders. Truman told the truth, so did Ike for the most part. John Kennedy started out well and then we lost him not long after the lies about the Bay of Pigs. Lyndon Johnson was a hard man but the truth was important to him, when he lied to us about Vietnam he destroyed a lot of what was good about his administration. Then we had Nixon, remember what lying did to him. Ford was an interim President but a truthful man. Carter didn't lie, sometimes I think that was why we voted him out of office. Reagan lied as did Clinton, Reagan paid less for his lies than Clinton, people forgave him because he really believed a lot of what he said. Now we have Bush, and the Neocons. Truth is at a premium when our nation is at risk. Terrorism is a problem but it does not put the nation at risk unless our obsession with it causes us to overreact.
The Patriot Act is an example of our government overreacting. So is the war in Iraq. We are a people who have taken our security from attacks by enemies outside our shores for granted. 9/11 was a shock and a horror. The question is will it change our nation drastically enough to damage our basis for self government. That basis is always that our elected officials must tell us the truth. Otherwise how can we actually have any effective impact on policies and actions take by the government? Vast public support for lies and liars will doom us, and our form of government, far more surely than any number of terrorists. I am far less scared of the terrorists than the cunning liars within our government who use their lies to manipulate us all. Remember this and give up that TV show that I talked about. The lies are getting thicker than they have been in my lifetime and they are starting to stink up our public life. Our only safeguard against that is an aware public looking at the evidence carefully and skeptically. God bless and keep you safe most of all from the liars, they are really much more dangerous than the terrorists.