The definition of honesty has really been on my mind a lot recently. Actually, honesty, as such, has been challenged over and over the last several years. I struggle with the fact that honesty, truth, as we know it, has become "truth in the eyes (opinions) of the beholder" or at least truth as told by whichever media source, whether it be Parler or Fox or MSNBC! Whatever happened to Dragnet's Sergeant Joe Friday and his famous line, "The facts, ma'am! Just the facts!"
In my opinion (ha!), if we focused more on the facts, on what actually happens rather than on our own perceptions of the truth, maybe we could again regain control of honesty. We need to try! Perhaps if we focused on data rather than the resultant interpretations either conservative or liberal, maybe honesty would follow. Sadly, I doubt it! We all seem to have to spin things our way, whatever way that is, is not it!
This last attack Friday afternoon on the U.S. Capitol grounds is a case in point! We all heard with anxiety that a car had rammed a Capitol barricade, resulting in the death and injury of Capitol police officers. Some of us immediately thought, "Oh, no! Another angry Trump-supporting terrorist!" Others heard, "The job isn't finished yet! Another one of us is attempting to "stop the steal!" What finally appears to be coming out is that this guy, Noah Green, is simply delusional and having mental issues whereby he believes his brain is being controlled by the feds! Whoa boy! What is truth? Facts, he drove his car into the barricade. After that, who really knows?
Facts again! It is April and thereby tax time! For most of us, a very unpopular time of the year, whether you are conservative or liberal! This year, Texas got a filing respite, thanks to all of us freezing to death for a week, but, "ho, hum, what else is new?" Honesty, especially, is frequently challenged during tax filing time, whether among the extremely wealthy, the not so wealthy, the middle class, on down to the poor. None of us like to pay taxes. Witness paying $750 per year, much less than most of us paid!
In some ways, I think we should all have a simple universal tax on the dollar spent. Texas and its $08.25 tax! Hey! No taxes to file every April! That way billionaires would have to pay something, maybe like half on everything they bought just like the guy who struggles to pay for a bottle of milk. Jeffrey Epstein and his billionaire guests would have had to pay half on their airplanes, mansions, as well as their comely young playmates. Ah, me! Not likely…. The guy struggling to buy the milk would still be paying much, much more of his income than Jeffrey and his ilk! What is honesty?
One thing honesty isn't… is lying. Duh! Did you keep up with the number of lies issuing the last four years out of the White House? The media did, liberal and conservative. Mr. Reagan was called the "Great Communicator"! Forty Five should be called the "Great Prevaricator"! Hopefully, the Courts, local, state, and national will still determine what is truth? What is honesty? Dominion Voting Systems has several defendants on the carpet right now for prevaricating. We will see what rolls out of these court cases! Onward and upward! "The facts, ma'am! Just the Facts!"