Letter to the Editor

An Open Letter to the American People

Where has the honesty gone?

It is a given that politicians are dishonest, to some degree. I wonder sometimes when that dishonesty crosses the line and when the American people will stop consenting to it.

I think it is dangerous to separate out misleading statements from lies. For instance, imagine you are caught speeding on the highway. The police officer comes to your window and says "Good afternoon. Do you know how fast you were driving?" You stop for a moment and think to yourself, "Do I really KNOW how fast I was going? The speedometer said I was going about 82 miles per hour, but I don't know for sure that was really how fast I was going." You ponder the situation for a moment and decide to tell the officer, " No, officer. I do not actually know how fast I was going." Did you lie? You knew the speedometer said you were going 82, but it was not necessarily accurate. Technically, you told the truth, for what do we really know? Is that the appropriate way to have reasoned through the situation? I think not.

I do not know about you, but I, for one, am sick of constantly hearing these types of misleading statements from top level government officials.

Did you know that there is no death tax? No such thing. There is an estate tax, but that only affects the wealthiest 2 per cent of Americans when they die. Surely by listening to the President's statements on the "death tax," or to Senate Republicans', you could conclude that some poor old farmer with three chickens and a barn is not going to be able to pass the family farm down to his or her children because those poor children will be so burdened by this so-called death tax that the Democrats support. Misleading. A lie.

I do not know about you, but I, for one, am still waiting for those "WMDs" to show up. That was why we went to war, right? Or, wait - was it because we were freeing the Iraqi people from the very real evils of Saddam Hussein's rule? I am confused. The terrorists were in Iraq before the war, Mr. President, and this was always a part of the War on Terror? Could someone explain to me the real reason we are in Iraq? I am pretty sure that we were supposed to look for WMDs, but these past few years I have heard so many new reasons that I cannot remember which came first. Perhaps it was because Saddam Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda. The 17 Saudi Arabian hijackers and the 2 Egyptian hijackers were associated with the Iraqi leader, or was that just another misleading statement?

I do not know about you, but I, for one, remember what President Bush said about the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He said, "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated a law, that person will no longer work in my administration." Karl Rove still works at the White House and he leaked the identity of a CIA operative. The last time I checked, that is a serious crime. I wonder if failing to keep a promise is like lying.

I do not know about you, but I, for one am tired. I am sick. I am sick and tired of being mislead. We, the people of the United States, deserve real answers to our questions. Was the President warned before the September 11th terrorist attacks? When did the Administration