Jeff Burgar
I thought for a long time, if a community leader said something, you could count on it being true.
If he or she said it right to your face – well – that was as good as gold, as the saying goes.
Actually, I believe I stopped thinking that around the age of 14 or 15. That was when I did some work for a local business person. He paid me with a cheque from his store. The cheque was signed with not his personal name, but the name of the store. I was so happy to be paid, I never even noticed this.
Later, it happened my dad asked me if I got paid for the work I did. I said “Got the cheque right here.” He asked to see it. And pointed out it wasn’t the store owner signing. Well, dang! So I went back to the store and confronted the fellow. He convinced me it was a good cheque.
So, at the bank, the staff all had a good giggle. They wouldn’t cash the cheque. Back at home, it turns out my dad was in on the “joke.” It was kind of the thing in some households those days to “help” your kids grow up. It certainly was in ours.
I finally got my money. And chewed out the store owner as best a 15-year-old just over five feet tall and soaking weighing maybe 100 pounds could. Oh, well!
It sort of seems a lot of politicians today still think the public is 15 years old or younger, and dumb as a barrel of hair.
So many politicians in fact, and so many in the biggest jobs in the world, we now have professional “fact checkers” to tell the public when lies are coming thick and fast.
As in last week’s president debate. Two people angling to run the most powerful country in the world can’t make election cases without telling tall tales and lies.
Donald Trump says immigrants are eating dogs and cats and pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Kamala Harris says Trump is going to sign a national abortion ban.
Trump says crime is down in Venezuela because all the bad guys are coming to the States.
Harris says Trump’s tariff ideas will cost American families $4,000 per year.
All, according to BBC in Britain, false, or stretched. Or in the case of abortions, the responsibility of each state, not the federal government, and according to the last decision by their Supreme Court, no president has anything to say about it! Period!
But hey, don’t let a good emergency or disaster go to waste! And in an election don’t miss the opportunity to smear your competition. So what if truth, honesty and even good manners are collateral damage?
It is nice to think that afterwards, all will sit around the campfire, sharing smores, having a good laugh about the wool pulled over the public’s eyes.
Yet, not more than a few decades ago in Canada, politicians actually worked together building a better country. These days, it seems like day in and day out, Job One is tear the other guys down no matter what it takes.
Joke? Lesson? Reality?
Back in the day, I finally did get my cash. These days, following a national politician’s leadership, it would be hot air or an IOU.