The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Usually. Well, sometimes.

"When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument,but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason." -Thucydides

When will we make allowances in our system for a political version of Aiding and Abetting? Politicians take an oath of office. If you or I take an oath in a courthouse and lie there is a penalty...when will the elected be held to the same standard? Mistakes should not necessarily be punished. An obvious pattern of mistruth should be. Does a Congressman or Senator not have a responsibility as high as or higher than a court witness or someone filling out a tax form?

I frequently hear people boldly present the idea of “speaking truth to power” and while I support the concept I would much rather HEAR some truth FROM power. Whether the issue is Saddam Hussein having WMDs or being involved in 9/11 http://www.antiwar.com/rep/utley9.html or what the definition of ‘’sexual relations’ is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs I am deeply saddened by the correlation between leadership and mistruth.

Let me retract that last statement. I am deeply PISSED. ‘Kick somebody in the teeth’ pissed.

I was taught, as you probably were, that science was about finding the truth. Actual truth. Science was not about proving your idea or my idea but rather about finding out what idea held water. When my 7^th grade science teacher explained that finding out my hypothesis was wrong was just as much a success as finding my hypothesis was correct I felt something akin to love. And not for Ms. Vance. The reward did not coming for being correct form the start but form being correct in the end. Encyclopedia Brown had already taught me this lesson but he did not present himself with the same authority as my science teacher. This spirit needs to be infused into the public debate.

The more information available to us the more I see people on both sides of any issue who are absolutely incapable of changing their mind. Should information not be bringing more and more of us to the same conclusions? I, personally, love being PROVED wrong. This does not happen because someone is louder than me, more insistent than me nor has more friends that share their idea than I do. It happens by using facts.

An anecdote is not a fact. A threat is not a fact. Disinformation does not become fact through repetition.

Truth. Bring me some truth.

I respect the person who can change their mind. I respect the person who wants to actually BE right, not the person who can convince the most people that they are right despite the facts.

I used to think that being wrong was punishment enough. Not anymore. If you have managed to thrust yourself into a decision making position in our government you should be held to a higher standard. Period. If you cannot hold yourself to that standard I will.

This necessity for the truth does not stop with politicians either. It needs to extend to the media. We regulate what claims can be made about products, foods and medicines, but we also have a court system that defends the right of a ‘news’ organization to lie: http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html Why is it that the makers of chocolate cake cannot deceive someone on how much fiber is in their product but media outlets can tell overt lies with impunity?

Do you want to improve your life? Do you want to improve the world left to your children? Then start making truth a priority. In fact, make it THE priority.