By Bernie Bates
As I sit and watch the nightly news I just want to scream at all of the injustice I see; rich crooks sitting in glass towers while a family man labors an extra hour just to make ends meet. Gangsters, who drive expensive cars past a single mother as she runs to the catch the bus to a minimum wage job. And politicians who send the police to evict some poor family from their home, so a bank can resell a house.
Depressing isn’t it? How much longer can this go on? Ever since I was an innocent little fart, I can remember watching politicians on a twenty inch black and white TV set. They’d be shaking their fingers and promising that they would fix everything – if only mommy and daddy would vote for them. Now I’m a jaded old fart and I’m watching politicians promise the same damned things and the only damned difference is I’m watching them lie to me in high definition.
I’ve told a few lies in my time; no, even that’s a lie, I’ve probably told enough lies to fill the room your standing in. And I’m sure that you too, have stretched the truth a time or two, right? But, in today’s World, lying has become a immoral art form. The better you are at it the further you’ll go in the business World, the higher up the political totem pole you’ll sit and if you can look an ugly woman in the eye and convince her that she’s beautiful – hell, son, the sky is the limit for you and your silver tongue.
And therein is the one of society’s problems – we let people lie to us without confrontation nor consequence. As my ol’ pappy used to say, “a man’s word is his bond.” If he shook your hand on a deal you could sleep well knowing that a lawyer wouldn’t be needed. And therein is another one of society’s problems – we reward people for their ability to twist the truth to suite their lawsuit.
Another thing that’s seemed to have gotten off track is our ability to recognize the truth when we see it – which brings us back to the ugly woman. If she’s ever been near a mirror in her life, she should know better than to blush and except that bald-faced-lie at face value. Politicians have been caught with there pants down and other politicians promise us that they’ll get to the bottom of the scandal and that justice will prevail. “Ah, bulls**t!”
Now a little white lie is sometimes forgivable, say for instance, telling a child, “Santa, knows if you’ve been naughty or nice,” or telling your wife, “Hell, no, your ass looks just fine in those jeans.” The question is, do you recognize the difference between those two fibs? One of the lies is to protect an innocent person from a harmful truth and the other is to protect your own ass. On second thought, maybe those lies are a little too close to call. But, most people know when a lie isn’t just misleading, it’s intended to cause actual harm or to gain an advantage. “The cheque is in the mail!”
And what do we do when we are lied to? If you were caught at work lying about stealing from the petty cash fund – would you be surprised when you got fired? Of course not, but, what if you were an executive who’s skimming millions or a politician excepting bribes? Shouldn’t the same punishment fit the crime? Well, it seems, with a good liar (I mean lawyer) they not only get away with it, they get compensation and a big fat pension. Doesn’t that piss you off? It makes you want to write to someone – but who? Your member of parliament? Ha, what a joke. Do you see why I get so upset at watching the news?
All too soon we’ll be bombarded with political commercials promising they’ll call us the morning after their election. They’ll be slinging mud at each other and trying to convince us that they are the chosen ones. I say that we should vote for a convicted prisoner, for these valid reasons; at least we’ll know where he is, he’d have plenty of time to work on problems, he’s familiar with what justice means, we’d know who he’s having a scandalous affair with and if he screws us over – he’s already just where we want him to be.
THE END
Dear reader: Please feel free to contact, B. H. Bates at: beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca
