Editorial: Who Trusts a Liar?
Okay, who trusts a liar?
To answer this one must ask, what kind of lie? To immediately state that all lies are wrong is too simplistic. For example we all tell lies to spare others feelings. Has anyone ever said to a grandmother showing off pictures of her new grandchild that the child was ugly, wrinkled and red? Or do we say something nice that will make the grandmother feel good about herself and her grandchild?
What about the former high school athlete who brags about his game winning shot in the big game that was played twenty or more years ago? If one were to go back those twenty years would it make a difference to you if he was in the game but didn't actually take the winning shot? Would you feel a lot differently if he had been at the game but not in the game? I would contend that if he was actually in the game that his mind might actually believe over the years that it was he that took that shot and as such I would regard the innacuracy as not being very harmful. I would judge his honesty on other matters. If he was proven by someone to have never been on the team then I would think a little less of him but I would still judge him on the basis of other matters.
What if the lie is something much larger? What if the lie was about the authorship of a speech or article that he presented as his own? Joe Biden resigned his bid for the 2000 presidential nomination because he gave a speech that was written and delivered in a different time by somebody else. He was called on it and he embarrassingly withdrew from the race. Was this significant? In the total scheme of things, probably not. All then Senator Biden needed to do was provide some credit to the origin of the speech but he did not. Regardless of his failure in this matter I continued to regard Senator Biden as a decent man.
But there are lies that are much larger. What about the candidate who claims to have served in combat in Vietnam who later is found to have never been in Vietnam and correspondingly, never in combat? There are men and women who put their lives on the line in combat roles in Vietnam and in other places of the world. Is it not an insult to them, especially those who did not return, for a person to claim hero status and pretend that they served where they did not?
Perhaps the worst kind of lie is the one told by someone after having given the oath to "tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God," in a courtroom setting or before grand jury testimony. This person like the phony combat veteran is not to be trusted. Certainly there may be reasons of embarrassment before family and friends that would make someone not want to tell the entire truth but as a matter of character this person has taken an oath that prevents that as a consideraton. The fact that the lie may have only been told about a personal subject, for example sex, should be of no matter.
There are lies we tell every day that we really don't consider to be much of a lie because this is what is done by someone in polite company. These lies pale in significance to the latter two examples described above. Democrat candidate Richard Blumenthal was recently caught by the NY Times who reported that his statement of combat veteran status "differs from history". http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html
I'm not sure what is more egregious, the lie itself or the manner in which persons try to cover up what was stated multiple times as a simple mis-statement. That he meant Vietnam-era veteran? Perhaps it is the headline to the NY Times article that instead of accusing the candidate of lying reports that his account differs from history. We are all aware of the double standard as it applies to Democrat candidates and Republican candidates but this is beyond the pale. Men and women sacrificed their lives at war and no person who either served but not in combat or who didn't serve has a right to embellish their record to include the perils of war as though they were experiences of their own.
Connecticut voters: I care about Connecticut. Understand who it is you are voting for and please, do not saddle the state of my birth and formative years with another liar in the United States Senate.
To answer this one must ask, what kind of lie? To immediately state that all lies are wrong is too simplistic. For example we all tell lies to spare others feelings. Has anyone ever said to a grandmother showing off pictures of her new grandchild that the child was ugly, wrinkled and red? Or do we say something nice that will make the grandmother feel good about herself and her grandchild?
What about the former high school athlete who brags about his game winning shot in the big game that was played twenty or more years ago? If one were to go back those twenty years would it make a difference to you if he was in the game but didn't actually take the winning shot? Would you feel a lot differently if he had been at the game but not in the game? I would contend that if he was actually in the game that his mind might actually believe over the years that it was he that took that shot and as such I would regard the innacuracy as not being very harmful. I would judge his honesty on other matters. If he was proven by someone to have never been on the team then I would think a little less of him but I would still judge him on the basis of other matters.
What if the lie is something much larger? What if the lie was about the authorship of a speech or article that he presented as his own? Joe Biden resigned his bid for the 2000 presidential nomination because he gave a speech that was written and delivered in a different time by somebody else. He was called on it and he embarrassingly withdrew from the race. Was this significant? In the total scheme of things, probably not. All then Senator Biden needed to do was provide some credit to the origin of the speech but he did not. Regardless of his failure in this matter I continued to regard Senator Biden as a decent man.
But there are lies that are much larger. What about the candidate who claims to have served in combat in Vietnam who later is found to have never been in Vietnam and correspondingly, never in combat? There are men and women who put their lives on the line in combat roles in Vietnam and in other places of the world. Is it not an insult to them, especially those who did not return, for a person to claim hero status and pretend that they served where they did not?
Perhaps the worst kind of lie is the one told by someone after having given the oath to "tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God," in a courtroom setting or before grand jury testimony. This person like the phony combat veteran is not to be trusted. Certainly there may be reasons of embarrassment before family and friends that would make someone not want to tell the entire truth but as a matter of character this person has taken an oath that prevents that as a consideraton. The fact that the lie may have only been told about a personal subject, for example sex, should be of no matter.
There are lies we tell every day that we really don't consider to be much of a lie because this is what is done by someone in polite company. These lies pale in significance to the latter two examples described above. Democrat candidate Richard Blumenthal was recently caught by the NY Times who reported that his statement of combat veteran status "differs from history". http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html
I'm not sure what is more egregious, the lie itself or the manner in which persons try to cover up what was stated multiple times as a simple mis-statement. That he meant Vietnam-era veteran? Perhaps it is the headline to the NY Times article that instead of accusing the candidate of lying reports that his account differs from history. We are all aware of the double standard as it applies to Democrat candidates and Republican candidates but this is beyond the pale. Men and women sacrificed their lives at war and no person who either served but not in combat or who didn't serve has a right to embellish their record to include the perils of war as though they were experiences of their own.
Connecticut voters: I care about Connecticut. Understand who it is you are voting for and please, do not saddle the state of my birth and formative years with another liar in the United States Senate.
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