Telling the Truth Ain't Easy

It seems like a pretty tall task to tell a five year-old that they need to tell the truth when telling the truth is not an easy thing to do.

*It wasn't easy for Bill Clinton. We all know what Clinton did. And it was wrong. But what made it worse was not telling the truth. His legacy would not be as tarnished as it is had he just stepped up and done the right thing when confronted about his shortcoming. Stand up, tell the truth, and accept your punishment and consequences.

*It's not easy for Paul Ryan. I cannot imagine doing what he is doing. I know running for VP must be an incredibly difficult thing to do, especially with so many people telling you what you should be doing. And not for one minute can I even pretend that I know what it's like to be in his shoes.
But lying is not going to make it any easier for him. It can be tempting to take the easy way out, doing things like blaming Obama for shutting down a GM plant, even though Obama wasn't even in office yet (among the many other non-truths in his VP acceptance speech on Wednesday night). There are fact-checkers. They will find you out. Do what you know you should do. Do the right thing. Play the political games however you will. But be honest.

*It's not easy for manufacturers. Companies manufacturing and selling potato chips have been filling their bags of chips half-full for years. As consumers, it's sad that we have come to expect that a bag of chips will be at best half-full. But I bought a bottle of dish cleaner yesterday and was surprised to find out that it was not filled full in the production plant. Things like this may not be what we would all consider lying . . . but we can all agree that it's deceptive marketing. Manufacturers can do better than just go with the line of thinking that it's what everyone else (manufacturers) does. They can tell the truth. They can market and sell their products fairly.

As we watch and help young people grow up, we encourage them to be honest. We can see it in their little eyes as they come upon a situation in which they must decide whether to tell the truth or not. And we scold them when they go astray.

If we're going to do that for five year-olds, it's high time we expect more out of the products that we buy . . . and the politicians leading our country.