The problem with honesty

The problem with honesty is that it seriously reduces the number of party invitations you get.

Most people give lip service to the old adage that honesty is the best policy, but we all have learned that there are times when it can get you into a lot of trouble. If a woman asks her husband if he likes the nightgown she just bought, he better know the difference between an honest answer and the right answer.

I was raised by a wonderful woman who I called Aunt Alice. The family genealogy is clouded, because my father was adopted, so it’s not clear if Auntie was my true aunt or an earth-bound angel who took me into her home and raised me.

Aunt Alice taught me a great deal about balancing honesty and diplomacy. When grading papers for her high school English students, she would never write “This is terrible” in the margin but might write “This needs improvement”. If someone proudly displayed a modern-art painting and asked her opinion, even if it looked like droppings on the bottom of a birdcage, she would say, “My goodness, that is truly remarkable, dear.” In our family, statements like that are called auntieisms.

All of this has come to mind as I contemplate how to deal with a topic in the news this week that requires total honesty but which also is loaded with emotional triggers that could cause some people to become angry. I have concluded that, in this case, the issue is so important that diplomacy must take a back seat to honesty. One can stretch the truth a bit about the nightgown, but if there is a Black Widow spider clinging to the strap, it’s time for total honesty.

All of this is merely a lead-in to the article in this week’s edition with new information about 9/11. To say that it is controversial is a huge understatement. There is no doubt that some people will be angry because they will understand immediately that it challenges the government’s version of what happened that day. The reason for their anger is that they love America and have come to believe that it is unpatriotic to question the government’s story.

OK, I understand that, but look! There’s a Black Widow spider clinging to that story!

I may have questions about certain features of the alternative story revealed in this interview, but total honesty compels me to say that I think the scenario presented by this former airline stewardess could be the missing piece of the 9/11 puzzle. If you ever have wondered about who some of the passengers were on those planes and what happened to them, you should go to the Rebekah Roth interview in the Analysis section and consider what she has to say.

G. Edward Griffin
2015 September 18