David T. Music And Stuff

Hello friends and family,

This story was written in 2004 yet, it reads contemporary. I’m pretty sure some of dad’s assertions are not quite accurate but are based on the mood of the period and what I call dad’s ‘reporter mentality’.  Always looking for ‘the angle’ and with a storyteller’s affinity to ‘sensationalize’ for the sake of the reader’s involvement in the story. That made for some difficult times for me, as a headstrong, opinionated teenager. I always felt that dad was looking for ‘the angle’ and did not really believe what I said to be the truth. Sometimes he was right . . .

I hope you enjoy this story as I did. Please remember, there is a comment section at the end of the page. I welcome all comments.

Thanks for reading,

David T

 

 

“Is Lying A Lie”

By Don Tschirhart

Excerpted from the unpublished book “It’s a Wonderful World: A Retired Reporter Looks At Life“

 

Is Lying A Lie

 

A while ago a letter writer announced he would vote for Senator John Kerry for president because Kerry would not “lie.”

How naïve!

I hate to dispel the writer’s belief and that of many others like him that American  presidents should always take the high road and tell the truth to the American people about all government operations. I’m sure they also mean things involving the nation’s security.

That has never happened. That is not happening now. And it will not happen in the future even if John Kerry is elected president.

Every US president has lied and will continue to lie for the security of our nation. Morality aside, sometimes the welfare of the United States depends on how good a liar the president is.

I don’t want to know every word expressed by terrorist leaders and overheard by our special listening devices that might involve the nation’s security. If they knew we listened, they’d shut up.

Lying is either saying something known to be wrong or not telling the whole truth. Lying is NOT saying something believed to be true at the time, but later found not to be true.

May I give you an example of lying:

There was a minister who asked his congregation to read Chapter 22 in John’s Gospel to prepare for the following Sunday’s sermon.

That Sunday the minister asked those who had read the chapter to raise their hands. Nearly all did.

The minister said, “ Thank you. There is no John 22nd. I’ll now get to my sermon subject: Lying.”

Of course, the latest most famous lie came from George W. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton.

Remember the televised quote: “I did not have sex with that woman.” Clinton lied so many times during his eight-year tenure that few people knew when he was telling the truth.

Republicans used his lies for political gain just as Democrats are trying to use George W.’s words to make him out a liar.

As for presidential lies, how about one of our most beloved presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt?

For years Roosevelt lied to the American people about his crippled legs, a fact that was covered up by the American press. He never did walk down the aisle to the podium in the U. S. House of Representatives before his annual State of the Union or Declaration of War speech. Nor did he walk up the aisle shaking hands with representatives and senators.

Roosevelt also deliberately held back from the American people just how sick he was before they re-elected him to a fourth term, a term he would soon turn over to Harry Truman when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Some historians believe that Roosevelt’s illness was a prime reason why Russian dictator Josef Stalin was able at the Yalta meeting to negotiate a politically split Germany that lasted 45 years.

At Harry Truman’s direction Americans were told there was an accidental arms depot explosion in the desert south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, when it actually was the successful experimental explosion of the first atom bomb.

So many lies were told by Americans and their allies about the European D-Day invasion that Hitler and his staff were thoroughly confused about the location and strength of the Longest Day on the Normandy beaches.

Remember President Richard Nixon. He wasn’t impeached because of the Watergate break-in scandal or his knowledge of the botched burglary.

He was hounded out of the presidency because he “lied” to Congressional investigators about his knowledge of the affair, something proven by his own voice on his own office tapes.

I’m not sure anyone really knows if President Ronald Reagan lied when he said he knew nothing about paying for the safe return of the Iranian hostages. To Reagan’s credit it wasn’t the money or arms to Nicaragua insurgents, but the hostages’ freedom that was important.

What about President John F. Kennedy’s affairs with women when wife, Jacqueline, was away from the White House?

Did he lie about those liaisons?

And wasn’t it Kennedy who lied to the American people about not invading Cuba just a few days before helping the Cuban exiles to invade their home country.

I kinda hope the American people continue their naiveté. With it comes innocence and keeping a high moral base.

And I think most Americans forgive “white” lies by our presidents when it comes to the welfare of our beloved country.

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