RESOLVED: Truth is most important

Mr. Editor, beg your pardon, Sir, but if I were making but one New Year's resolution and printing it as editorial in my newspaper, I would not, at this point, urge civility amongst letter writers. Maybe next year I would. But, I think, before we can hope to be civil, we should first learn to be honest. We've got to chuck out all the half-truths, propaganda and whatnot. Just get it out of our systems, you know, and get away from all that.

Why should anyone respect me after I've blown smoke in their face, trying to convince them of something that's not true? You don't earn respect that way. And any civility you get after that is going to be a little forced, don't you think?

Now, I believe that there are folks in this country that are paid to produce propaganda and to spread it around over the Internet and by whatever means. They clearly don't care at all about the truth. (By coincidence, printed on the same page and same issue as your resolution editorial, there's a letter from a man defending the Tea Party movement, who, it seems, may be looking for truth in all the wrong places. But I assure you, I have the greatest respect for "Hoot" Gaylor, never having met the man. But I see him as a link in a chain, hypothetically.)

Hypothetically, imagine Mr. Gaylor sending The Press a letter and in that letter is a bald-faced lie, being palmed off as fact. That lie was made up by someone - probably on payroll. It is then e-mailed out to a number of people, who forward it. At some point, Mr. Gaylor receives it, passes it on to the Coeur d'Alene Press and someone there makes the decision to print it. Granted, not many will believe that President Obama's grandmother was an alien - a space alien - who once had a speaking role in a "Star Trek" episode, but some certainly will; there being no shortage of gullibility in our country. But the question is who in this chain has earned anyone's respect? Is it OK to say, "Well, gee, I didn't lie to anyone. I just passed the lie along?"

And, finally, I don't know how to "preserve" anyone's integrity. A tough assignment that. But I suspect, if anyone figures it out, some kind of "truth serum" will play a key role.

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