Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

 

I've been lied to all my life: by companies, news sources, governments, sales men and women, people in authority and sometimes friends and family.

I no longer take things at face value.

I began to suspect lies when my girl friend was doing a paper on articles in woman magazines before and after WWII. Before, the joys of working were prevelant. After? The joys of being a housewife. A lie or manipulation? Does it matter?

Likewise when I was doing a paper and researching it at the Boston Public Library. I wandered into the periodical room and enjoyed browsing old magazines from the 40s and 50s. They were many ads with doctors saying how a brand of cigarettes was good for your health. We know that was a lie.

The history I learned in school was only part of the story, the part that made America look like that shining beacon on a hill. Kids now are being lied to with stories of happy slaves.

I agree with Michael Moore as he reputed the lie that we were told in school about our "permanent record." I was a good girl in school, but worried about pulling a chain attached to my "permanent record" for the rest of my life. Likewise my good grades were only good for getting into university, where I learned to dig deeper into what I was told.

Vietnam was a lie. As was many of the governments the US supported. How many Americans have been lied into protecting their country? It does not negate their service, but makes the price they paid for a lie even more expensive.

I do regret I never demonstrated at the School of Americas in Fort Benning Georgia, where the U.S. trained Latin Americans who later did what they could to keep the good little workers for companies in poverty like United Fruit.

Oil companies lied to us about their part in climate change.

The one that really bothered me was baby powder. I loved it. Slathered my daughter with it. Fortunately, nothing bad has happened. The good is that they are fined billions for the damage their product did.

I listen to Trump and credit him with an active imagination but not an alliance with truth. His lies about a non-stolent election, has done great damage to my birth country.

He is not the only politician lies. More than one work with "alternative facts" as Kellyanne Conway called them.

I would think by now, the politicians know they are on the record with other contradictory stories. I suspect they think it won't matter, people aren't paying attention.

I know from being a journalist that selecting which facts used can shape a story if not a lie, a misrepresentation. As a fiction writer, I wanted to do that in the case of some stories, but I resisted. I thank my first editor Fred Cole for stressing accurate reporting.

In my personal life, an ex-husband lied to me and some alleged friends have over the years.

Who do I trust? My current husband, my daughter, a few friends, some teachers, a boss or two. I don't trust the society I live in. 

It's sad.

Note: Check out D-L's website www.dlnelsonwriter.com