Stretching the truth

A local church marque said: “Nothing ruins the truth more than stretching it.” Truth is like a rubber band. The stretch breaks and snaps back in the face of the person doing the stretching. A deceiver weaves tangled webs, a person who lacks integrity and morality. Ethics are the fine line between right and wrong, and governs what laws shouldn’t have to. Deception has no code of ethics.

A lie by any other name is a lie. Call it whatever you want, but stretching the truth is a lie. Some things are black and white, and truth/lie is one of them.

Telling a lie is one thing; believing that lie is no different. People who stretch the truth have no integrity, are not honest, and can’t be trusted. Others who perpetuate the gossip and support the lie lack integrity and honesty just like the original liar.

How do you prove the truth when you are the only one telling the truth, and everyone believes the liars? Everyone, meaning people who present themselves as upstanding and contributing citizens; people in the local government, businesses, and town, who think they have no reason to question what they hear. Don’t lies make great juicy gossip, so fun to spread around?

We scorn the presidential candidate’s lies about her emails, but our only other choice is a bully. That doesn’t say much for the morality of this country. Would the real leader please stand up?

There is a side of my townspeople that I wish wasn’t there. Sure, graft and corruption are “everywhere,” but that doesn’t excuse us in Hot Springs County. We cannot control what happens in the federal government, or elsewhere, but we can control happens on our home turf.

Six summers, and the liars are still getting away with it. This situation on Red Lane will never end, will it? Our neighborhood will never be peaceful again.

Those who turn your backs and say, “this doesn’t concern me,” and those who participate in the lies, you know who you are, and you know what I’m talking about.

Integrity: The quality of honesty and strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

We stomp on the Constitution and ignore what it says, yet we claim to be Americans.

Americans have integrity and honor. What does your integrity-meter read? High or - not at all?