What Ever Happened to Honesty?

Webster's defines honesty as: Fairness and uprightness; truthfulness; freedom from deceity or fraud.

What about the command, "Thou Shalt Not Lie"? I know many think it 'dated,' but it sounds like a concept worth hanging onto to me.

After all, how do you feel when someone lies to you? Frustrated? Angry? Disappointed? Hurt? Maybe even crushed?

And yet, day after day, we are spoon-fed lies masquerading as truth. The news media. Advertising propaganda. Our co-workers or employer or employees. Politicians.

However, many of us still operate under these two assumptions?

The news media is reporting 'news' - i.e. 'truth'.

Science exists to discover 'facts' thus scientists report what is 'true' and 'real'.

It ain't true, folks. Not anymore. We've been led around far too long. We're much too much like the frog in the pan of water. The water is hot! We still believe it when we're told there is ice on the edges!

Here is just a taste.

• Not long ago I wrote an article about "Global Warming" the biggest scam (okay, that's my opinion, but give me a chance to explain) since Chicken Little. I don't spend much time listening to the news. After all, I have this aversion to lies. However, I have noticed that you can hardly pick up a major newspaper or magazine, or turn on the TV, without hearing something about the end of the world - (oh, I mean global warming). In my article I contrasted two different opinions. I mean DIFFERENT. Both based on science? I think not! However, regardless of who is right and who is wrong, you and I and our children and our grandchildren are going to pay BIG TIME!
  
  
• What about the house burning on Woodinville, Washington's 'Street of Dreams'? An environmental group is taking credit for destroying five new homes. Why? They weren't 'environmentally friendly' enough. (laugh) All the smoke and pollutants from the fire were? Who made them judge, jury, and executor? What is worse, they are being called 'eco-activitists'. Excuse me! They just committed an act of terror. Is that the new politically correct name for terrorists? Let's get real!
  
  
• Then there is the not-so-explosive, but just as inappropriate act, committed by a scientist last month. (I say, 'committed,' because a 'real' scientist knows this wasn't science.) Joel Berger, who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, claimed White-Tailed Jack Rabbits were now extinct in Yellowstone National Park. Predictably lots of people jumped on the bandwagon. "Oh, another animal extinct. Hurry. Let's save the rest of the planet before 'they' destroy it." (Okay, overstatement, but still, what was Joel's point?) Fortunately, not everyone believes everything they hear. In fact, it seems Joel was inundated with photos of the 'now extinct' Jackrabbit. All taken recently. Imagine that!
  
  
• Adding insult to injury, Joel is also the one who recently said wolves were helping the environment by killing coyotes who prey on antelope fawns. In fact, he went so far as to say the numbers in the Yellowstone Herd were up 50% since the wolve's re-introduction. Excuse me? What about the Yellowstone Park Foundation's 2004 claim the herd numbers were down 50% due to development which was closing off their migration route? You can't have it both ways!

All that said, let me clarify something. I do NOT paint all environmentalists or scientists or reporters by the same brush. I still believe there are real warriors out there - people fighting not just for a cause, but for a true cause! I applaud their efforts!

I believer, my friends, the problem is us! We, the American people, are the problem. We've settled into our complacency for TOO long. How long do you think lying reporters, over-zealous environmentalists, hot-air spouting politicians, or scientists who practice false science, would last if we the people of the United State of America got off our duffs and demanded truth, honesty, and fairness? From our politicians! Our news media! Our scientists! Our neighbors! Ourselves!

We are too lazy. To willing to let others do our thinking. To willing to swallow the bitter bill even though we know deep down inside it is poison.

Let's wake up. Demand truth! And, call a spade a spade!

Lady of the Lake