Summary: A Politician burst into the editorial office of the local newspaper and blurted out, “You are telling lies about me in your newspaper, and you know it.” “You should be thankful that we are telling lies”, replied the editor, “we could start telling the truth and then you would really be upset.” When you don’t have anything to hide, you won’t have any trouble with the truth. Is there a problem with truth in our Nation? I think so! And the sad thing about it is that once we start having problems with TRUTH, we soon start having problems with TRUST. We are at the point now where we don’t trust our leaders, and that wouldn’t have happened had they been truthful with us in the past. While many people in our day say that truth doesn’t matter as long as a man can do his job, the leaders of the past took a different view. Herbert Hoover, speaking at the reception given him on his 80th birthday, said: “A Nation is strong or weak, it thrives or perishes upon what it believes to be true. If our young people are rightly instructed in the faith of our fathers; in the traditions of our country; in the dignity of each individual man, then our power will be stronger than any weapon of destruction that man can devise.” On the battlefield of politics, the first casualty is truth. And after the first lie, things are never the same. The truth welcomes investigation; a lie shrinks from inquiry. A man who seeks truth--who loves it and lives it--is a precious commodity. Paul Graham
