True and False

Good Morning Friends,

I can’t wait for this election to be over. I said the same thing the last presidential election and the one before that. Rumor, lies and innuendo run rampant in our media outlets and especially on the Internet.

I was sent another false claim the other day. It was a fake receipt allegedly signed by Michele Obama from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City for over four hundred dollars for a lobster dinner for two including caviar and Champagne.

The New York Post ran a story about it. A couple of days later the Post ran a retraction saying it wasn’t true. They were duped by a Political Action Committee (PAC) who sent the false receipt to discredit the Obama campaign.

Political Action Committees are beholding to no one. They can say whatever they want, make up stories, tell lies and do. Their intent is to create damaging rumors for people to believe and pass on. Common sense would tell you check it out, but it is in the nature of human ignorance to believe what you want to believe whether it’s true or not. Why is it we’d rather transgress than transform and transcend?

My new book, Stone Wisdom comes out in a couple of days. One of the entries is a poem entitled Election Limerick which I wrote after the last Presidential campaign. It seems appropriate for this post and as a commercial plug for the book.

Thanks for the indulgence.

Election Limerick
© 2008 Rolland G. Smith

Some thinking today on the pain
Of this past election campaign-
A rhyming viewpoint
To scold, not anoint.
How negative drives us insane!

Notice it’s easier to breathe
With no more political sleaze.
The ads are all gone.
Let’s vow from hereon,
To demand politics that please.

Imagine what that would be like
Back to times of Stassen and Ike.
All words must be clean,
No phrase could be mean,
Commercials could only unite.

Start it with political speech
And the rule to follow for each:
Find something that’s nice,
That’s true and precise
With phrases that honor and teach.

Maybe we should make it a law
For parties to lead or withdraw.
All ads must be true-
Now that would be new-
All perfect, no lies, not a flaw.

Tell us truthfully, where you stand.
If you need it, bring in a band.
Keep it clear! Direct!
The truth in effect,
And politics would then be grand.