Prevarication is lying, just so we are on the same
page. It can also mean in loose terms
skirting around an issue in order to conceal the truth. Either way we look at the definition I think
we can agree when it comes to high stakes business or political positioning
where human beings are affected, prevarication is not a tool, it is a vile weapon.
In business there are financial repercussions also known as Fiduciary
Responsibilities so when something important to the representation of a
business transaction is purposely fabricated, there are lawful penalties that
result in financial and legal repercussions.
But in public service or politics, prevarication has little
legal repercussions and has become a tool of dirty partisanship and tragically
for Americans has been weaponized to distort reality and create ill will
toward minorities, ethnic populations and genders. Now we can argue till we’re blue who is using
this more but when it is obvious and the electorate does not call it out and
voice loudly that it is inappropriate then we have a real systemic problem.
When the electorate (you) does not call out our elected
leaders for blatant lying and prevarication simply because you support that
particular party or issue, then the access of evil has been accepted and endorsed. Tolerating this blatant lying is a moral and
spiritual cancer. American’s are charged
with the duty of policing our elected officials even after they are elected and
especially after they are elected!
This is critical because not doing so is unpatriotic and un-American and the damage to living breathing Americans is real and critical. An issue dear to my heart is the privilege of
being able to marry the person of my choice, in my case my partner of 30 years
Steve. When the Supreme Court ruled in
2013 that it was legal for same sex couples to Marry it carried with it 1100
rights and privileges we had no access to prior. I have had many people say this is against their
religious principles yet nowhere is anyone making these people Marry a same sex
person. It really is that simple.
My one big example when I speak with people of faith is
this; if Steve were to get hit by a car and ended up in the hospital, I could
be denied access to his hospital room. I
would be outside while he was lying in dire pain, alone, afraid and then die
without his life partner at his side. This is less than not acceptable, it’s
inhumane. Not likely to happen you
say? FUCK yeah it has happened! A doctor that had a bigoted view of same sex
relationships could deny access to the other partner. Families
that objected to their son of daughter’s partner would have the right to deny access to his or her's dying
partner before Same Sex Marriage was legal nationwide. To make matters worse the family could then steal all of their bank accounts, insurance policies and property leaving the
partner with little or no recourse despite both having contributed equally to
the joint estate. This is merely one of
the reasons that legal status for same sex marriage is so important. From what I have seen most straight people
take this privilege for granted as it is expected, but not me.
Now if you have heart felt religious objection to same sex
marriage then you can exercise your 1st Amendment Right to voice
that objection BUT you don’t have the right impose your religious objection on others who
do not share your religious conviction and make them do things they do not
support. Freedom of Religion and Freedom
from Religion is the implicit 1st amendment division between church
and state identifying individual and equal citizen protections and rights. Freedom of Speech is exactly that, it is not
the ability to deny another American the same rights and privileges that other
American’s enjoy. But that has come into
question due to the prevarication that “Religious Freedom” should allow
institutional and legislated division between American’s which is a
bastardization of the concept of Freedom and is truly un-American. But many have bit hard on the concept because
it was a “manufactured concept” to manipulate the weak minded and
impressionable. Think about it, are you one of them?
The same could be said about abortion. I fully understand the concept is horrific to
many people of many faiths but enslaving a woman to carry to term a baby for
whatever reason is violating her freedom to choose how she can treat her body
literally strapping her down to a hospital gurney for 9 month forcing her to
give birth. I wonder how “people of
faith” would react if a law were passed that said the man responsible for the
pregnancy against the woman’s wishes would immediately have his balls cut off
so he could not repeat the same transgression.
That would raise some eyebrows and drive home the point of not being in
control of your body. During the
election debates Trump said "With what Hillary is saying, in the ninth
month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother
just prior to the birth of the baby."
This was a gross manipulation and a lie! In reality 1.2% of abortions are performed
after 21 weeks and most of them were for life threatening problems to the
mother. So the lie played well to the
worked up Pro-lifers but it’s still a lie.
The same rhetoric about Planned Parenthood using Federal tax payer money
for abortions is a blatant lie. Federal
funds by law are not used for abortions period and abortions account for only
3% of the services Planned Parenthood performs for Women, Teens and Men. But the prevaricated rhetoric turned the
public discourse to Planned Parenthood being an abortion mill. That is a lie and a vile cancer that the
public is being manipulated with, using lies to get the electorate worked into
a frenzy to get the result some group wants at the expense of truth. Reality TV has stolen our soul and reason and
fed our contemptible desire to fight for some outrage at the expense of another
American. We must hold ourselves and our
elected officials to a much higher standard of truth or we allow the country to
be manipulated into a blind Fascist Oligarchy.
I have been vocal on what I liked and what I did not like
about the Democratic Addenda and the Republican Addenda both of which were
drafted at each party’s convention prior to the election. No party has all the answers but the
conversation about what and who we are as a nation and how we honor all
American’s has to change. My litmus test
for a proposed law or change to a federal policy and services is as follows; does the
change treat all American’s equally as well as benefit the majority. We have to leave out the religious points of
view because not all American’s share that faith. We cannot legally cut out any one person due
to gender, orientation, skin color, financial status or nation of origin for
disparate treatment.
Lastly, we have to call out when our elected officials use
prevarication and lies for the purpose of getting elected thru manipulation or to distort public perception and
we must call it out quickly and terribly.
This was the failing of the media in this election and the failing of
any American that only wants to see their party come to power at the expense of
equality and fairness. American Values
have a basis in equality, fairness and freedom so anything that lessens this cannot
be tolerated by us the electorate, the media or our elected officials. It is time for a revolution of decency where
all American’s are treated equally. Women, men, gay, straight, trans, black,
white, Asian, American Indian, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Hindi, the whole
diverse pie that is America.
If you stand for only some American’s, you stand for nothing
remotely American and shame on you and
shame on us for letting America fail to express the promise of America’s
heritage and founding principles of fairness and freedom.