What is Fact? What is Fiction? What is True? What is False? Has Fantasy, Fraud, and Fiction supplanted Fact, Truth, and Reliability? Does it matter any more? Truth and Integrity seem to have been sacrificed; fiction has been substituted for reality; and journalism has yielded to “something feigned, invented, or imagined.” However, the Associated Press Headline article By Liz Sidoti this morning reads: “Poll: 4 out of 5 Americans don't trust Washington.” She writes: “America's Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, called government the great trust, but most Americans today have little faith in Washington's ability to deal with the nation's problems. Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found.”
Peggy Noonan is a very gifted and creative writer. In The Wall Street Journal: April 9, 2010, she wrote: “After the Crash, A Crashing Bore.” In her desire to see some indication of Transparency in the climate of our times, she resorted to both Fiction and Hyperbole (an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally) to make an important point: “The men behind the bailout take refuge in impenetrable jargon. Like all Americans, I continue to seek to understand exactly what moods, facts, assumptions, dynamics, agendas and structures underlay and made possible the crash and the Great Recession…That’s why this week’s Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings were so exciting, such a public service. The testimony of Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, a too-big-to-fail bank that received $45 billion in bailouts and $300 billion in taxpayer guarantees, was riveting. You’ve seen it on the news, but if you were watching it live on C-Span, the stark power of his brutal candor was breathtaking. This, as you know, is what he said: Let’s be real. This is what happened the past 10 years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best. Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats: Look what I give you! Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans: I’m a homeowner, I’ve got a stake, don’t raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!’ And Wall Street? We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay their mortgage. As if we cared. We invented financial instruments so complicated no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were. You’re finaglers and we’re finaglers. I play for dollars, you play for votes. In our own ways we’re all thieves. We would be called desperadoes if we weren’t so boring, so utterly banal in our soft-jawed, full-jowled selfishness. If there were any justice, we’d be forced to duel, with the peasants of America holding our cloaks. Only we’d both make sure we missed, wouldn’t we?”
Noonan continues: “OK, Charles Prince didn’t say that - he would never say something so dramatic and intemperate. I made it up. It wasn’t on the news because it didn’t happen. It would be kind of a breath of fresh air though, wouldn’t it?” But then - the News on April 16: “The government on Friday accused Wall Street's most powerful firm of fraud, saying Goldman Sachs & Co. sold mortgage investments without telling the buyers that the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. And fail they did. The securities cost investors close to $1 billion while helping Goldman client Paulson & Co., a hedge fund, capitalize on the housing bust. The Goldman executive accused of shepherding the deal allegedly boasted about the exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!" What separates Truth from Fiction? A Biblical Guideline that should be embraced and adhered to is: II Corinthians 8:20-21, “We want to avoid any criticism…For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.” And, Romans 12:17, “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.” To walk in Truth and Integrity is a life-choice and a life-style. It has been called – “Spiritual Breathing!” We need to do it! Consider these things with me!
Peggy Noonan is a very gifted and creative writer. In The Wall Street Journal: April 9, 2010, she wrote: “After the Crash, A Crashing Bore.” In her desire to see some indication of Transparency in the climate of our times, she resorted to both Fiction and Hyperbole (an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally) to make an important point: “The men behind the bailout take refuge in impenetrable jargon. Like all Americans, I continue to seek to understand exactly what moods, facts, assumptions, dynamics, agendas and structures underlay and made possible the crash and the Great Recession…That’s why this week’s Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings were so exciting, such a public service. The testimony of Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, a too-big-to-fail bank that received $45 billion in bailouts and $300 billion in taxpayer guarantees, was riveting. You’ve seen it on the news, but if you were watching it live on C-Span, the stark power of his brutal candor was breathtaking. This, as you know, is what he said: Let’s be real. This is what happened the past 10 years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best. Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats: Look what I give you! Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans: I’m a homeowner, I’ve got a stake, don’t raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!’ And Wall Street? We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay their mortgage. As if we cared. We invented financial instruments so complicated no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were. You’re finaglers and we’re finaglers. I play for dollars, you play for votes. In our own ways we’re all thieves. We would be called desperadoes if we weren’t so boring, so utterly banal in our soft-jawed, full-jowled selfishness. If there were any justice, we’d be forced to duel, with the peasants of America holding our cloaks. Only we’d both make sure we missed, wouldn’t we?”
Noonan continues: “OK, Charles Prince didn’t say that - he would never say something so dramatic and intemperate. I made it up. It wasn’t on the news because it didn’t happen. It would be kind of a breath of fresh air though, wouldn’t it?” But then - the News on April 16: “The government on Friday accused Wall Street's most powerful firm of fraud, saying Goldman Sachs & Co. sold mortgage investments without telling the buyers that the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. And fail they did. The securities cost investors close to $1 billion while helping Goldman client Paulson & Co., a hedge fund, capitalize on the housing bust. The Goldman executive accused of shepherding the deal allegedly boasted about the exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!" What separates Truth from Fiction? A Biblical Guideline that should be embraced and adhered to is: II Corinthians 8:20-21, “We want to avoid any criticism…For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.” And, Romans 12:17, “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.” To walk in Truth and Integrity is a life-choice and a life-style. It has been called – “Spiritual Breathing!” We need to do it! Consider these things with me!
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