Truth, as I explained in a post a few days ago, is one of my most important values. That's why this column from Mark Steyn is of great interest to me, because it comments on several things I was thinking after Governor McGreevy forced his "truth" on the nation. I could care less that he is gay. What I care about is that he has been lying to his constituents, his wife and family, and probably his lover for some time. I care that he used his power as Governor of NJ to give special benefits to his unqualified lover, and that he risked the security of his state and his people; knowingly pissed on the public trust and thoroughly devalued his office. Obviously it took a certain kind of courage to tell the "truth" that he was gay to a national audience (and as I said here, I respect him for telling that part of the truth). But what he didn't say is also important, and herein can be found the continued duplicity and lies that his "truth" concealed. And the coward underneath.
"My truth is that I am a gay American,'' announced Gov. James McGreevey to the people of New Jersey last Thursday.
That's such an exquisitely contemporary formulation: ''my'' truth. Once upon a time, there was only ''the'' truth. Now everyone gets his own -- or, as the governor put it, ''One has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world.'' For Jim McGreevey, his truth is that he's a gay American; for others in the Garden State, the truth about McGreevey is that he's a corrupt sexual harasser who put his lover on the state payroll in a critical homeland security post, and whose I-am-what-I-am confessional is a tactical feint that distracts the media sob sisters from the fact that, as his final service to the Democratic Party, he's resigned in such a way as to deny the people an early vote on his successor.
Steyn goes on to compare this situation to John Kerry and his particular "truth". As evidence mounts that Kerry has lied repeatedly about his tour of duty in Vietnam (all to make himself look good); that some of his "band of brothers" were never on his boat; and that he continues to refuse to release records that might clear up the entire question (thereby giving further evidence that he is trying to hide something--remember when I talked about the psychological defense mechanism of projection? Who has the Left (including Kerry) spent most of their time vilifying for lying? Who has the Left accused of being AWOL and "deserting").
What we have in the Kerry deception about his military service is the evidence of a calculated, nuanced mind all right--totally obsessed with his own advancement and accumulation of power; with no moral standards at all (he will use his own videocamera in the middle of a war to record for posterity a reenactment of his supposed "heroism", for just one example); and someone who pretends to understand "the common man" and fake a lunch with the riff-raff at Wendy's, knowing that a 5-star luncheon is awaiting him inside his luxury motor vehicle. Who is John Kerry? The truth is that he is no one who can lead this country in any honorable way during the current war that confronts it. Read the entire Steyn article.
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