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Mental Health Moment: A weekly column by Helen & Harry Highwater

THE WEEK BEFORE

www.unknownnews.org/hh.html

THE WEEK AFTER

Truth or dare, America

by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News

Dec. 30, 2005

In optimistic moments, it's fun to wonder what the world would be like, if the people who followed Christianity and the world's other assorted religions actually lived their lives by the teachings of the religions they claim to follow. Why, I think we'd have peace on earth.

I wonder about the people who surround themselves with American flags, who yell about "supporting the troops," or put yellow ribbons on their cars (magnets, not stickers, so the symbol can be removed as easily as the troops will be forgotten). What if these people sincerely gave half a damn about America, or about the troops? They'd be calling for the troops to be brought home, of course.

What if news reporters reported news? What if newspapers from the Washington Post to the Hicksville Gazette simply told the truth, with headlines that “Bush lied yesterday, when he said ...” and “Cheney is a pathological liar”? What if the nightly news was designed to make current events understood, instead of obfuscated?

What if, instead of simply repeating what federal spokesandroids said, their statements were reported alongside the facts -- allowing anyone with a brain to see what the Scott McClellans of the world are made of, or full of.

Such questions are moot, of course. Downright silly. We might as well ask, What if Dick Cheney had a conscience? What if Donald Rumsfeld was an honest man? What if Condoleezza Rice was black? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? One could grow delirious, asking so many nonsensical questions.

What if Rush Limbaugh was wired to a 220v electrical connection, and given a hair-raising shock every time he lied on his national radio show? Do you think he could make it from one commercial break to the next without half a dozen juicy jolts?

What if the Drug Czar told the truth about marijuana, instead of exaggerating its dangers?

Think of it as an episode of The Twilight Zone. See the signpost up ahead?

Imagine, if you will, that the American military’s recruiting officers told the truth to high school children. What if recruits were told, straight out and in plain English, that they wouldn’t be defending America -- they’d just be occupying foreign countries, risking death or disfigurement for causes that American leaders couldn’t explain without lies?

And as long as we're daydreaming, let's daydream big. Imagine if, instead of whispers and conspiracy theories, all of the government’s secret files were simply opened for public perusal. No more filing "Freedom of Information Act" forms, because our government had no more secrets from its people. No more wondering who killed JFK, RFK, MLK, or Biggie Smalls. No more stonewalling about what happened on September 11, 2001.

What if our leaders took charbroiled horseshit off the menu, and gave us the truth instead? What if we had an open, honest government, with White House press releases full of facts instead of fiction? Wouldn't that be something? Imagine, the truth would be out there -- the plain facts of the matter, about everything from "morning after" birth control to toppled governments and assassinated leaders all around the world.

How furious would your average American be, to discover that everything we the people had been told, everything we'd thought we'd known all our lives, was a mountain of lies, half-lies, three-quarter-lies, "national security" lies, lies we knew were lies, lies we suspected, lies we'd swallowed, lies we'd told ourselves, and lies we'd told each other?

What would Americans do, if we finally knew the truth? Would Americans be angry, furious? Would we take to the streets, ready to tar and feather the liars? Would we demand truth and justice as the American way?

The tragedy is, we already know the truth, because the liars aren't very good at lying. They've left the truth pretty obvious, and all of us know the answers, really, to most of the questions asked above. We already know with absolute certainty we've been lied to, about virtually everything.

There's only one pertinent question that really remains unanswered, and it's the only question that matters: What are we going to do about it?

© by the author.

What do you think?

I can't afford therapy, but boy do I need it. So as an affordable alternative, I pound my anger into a weekly column here.

Fair warning: My parents were repressed -- using any bad words would get my mouth washed out with soap, literally. I still remember the sickly flavor of Dove^TM. So as an adult, vulgarity helps with the healing. If naughty language offends you, beat the rush and get offended now.

This page is for my own good, not yours, so you may not like it, but I don't care.

About the authors

Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.

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