HONESTY

Does the word honesty have any meaning in today’s world? Yahoo posed a question: “How can a blind human become a great philosopher?” The answer: “To deal with ones own blindness is the essence of philosophy.” Has self-interest triumphed over honesty? It would be most difficult to find another word in the dictionary more magnanimous or noble. Spinning and out-right lying is denigrating the very essence of our political heritage. Reality tells us that the choices people make have fostered our destiny both as a nation and as individuals. Conduct has consequences.
In today’s NY Times (2/12/10), columnist Paul Kurgan, a Nobelist economist, questioned the sincerity of the Republican Party’s position on Social Security, noting that when that party was in charge of the government under Newt Gingrich, they shut down the government in their attempt to cut Social Security benefits. Now they have condemned the current health care reform effort because it has a provision that cuts Social Security spending, offering a counter provision that cuts the spending on the bill at an even greater level. Such conduct is difficult to abide.
Are the members of the Democratic Party more high-minded and open about their intentions? Hardly. Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a past president of an insurance company, made sure that insurance companies were protected in the health bill. He once was an advocate of the single-payer plan, but when push came to shove, he showed his colors. The recipient of insurance company contributions to his coffers wants us to believe that his change of heart was purely incidental.
It’s no wonder that in Plato’s The Republic, he said, “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” F. Scott Fitzgerald once noted that, “No such thing as a man willing to be honest—that would be like a blind man willing to see. Now the father of our country said: “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the enviable of all titles, the character of an “Honest Man.” Spoken like a true slaveholder as well as a backwoods whiskey producer.
So, show a little kindness when our leaders bend the truth and change their platform after they get telected. There is no commandment, “Thou shall not lie.” And remember when the next time you fudge a little on your taxes or wife, casting the first stone may be harder than you think. All humans are accountable at the River Jordan and even at election time.