Perjury

     One Webster dictionary defines perjury as: “in law, the willful telling of a lie while under oath to tell the truth in a matter material to the point of inquiry.”  Under U.S. federal law, perjury is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.  As a private citizen we never want to commit perjury. 

     As honest and moral individuals, most of us feel obligated to tell the truth.  If we are religious, most religions say telling a lie is a sin.  In my book, Business Fits, there is a chapter on customer service.  I state the number one rule of customer service is, “Never lie to a customer.”

     Considering all this, why do we think politicians telling lies is okay?  I hear people say, “Its just politics.”  Does that mean politics is not important?  Does it mean politics don’t effect out daily lives?  Does it mean it’s okay to lie to people so they don’t have accurate information to decide whom to vote for?  Have we come to the point where lies and big money perpetuating those lies decide elections?  I hope not, but we may need to make some changes.  Change can be good, especially if it does not increase the size of government and the power of the political elite.

     I knew an individual who was one of our elected state legislators.  He was appalled at how legislators could make an argument on the house floor and make statements they knew were not true.  I think all elected government officials, appointed government officials, or anyone running for office should be made to take an oath to tell the truth under the penalty of perjury.  I think these government officials should be held to a higher standard and should forfeit all rights associated to the government position if convicted of any felony including perjury. 

     I am just dreaming, as I am not naive enough to think this type of legislation could be passed and signed into law as many of the political elite would be signing legislation that would end their political careers.  While we’re dreaming, maybe we should make the news media, and advertisers knowingly making false statements be subject to penalty of perjury too.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have elected officials actually working for the good of the country?  It was fun to fantasize for a moment. 

     I guess we will just have to take the personal responsibility to actually find out the facts and try to disseminate these facts to our personal circle of influence.  I have to admit that in my younger years, I was too involved with earning a living to actually investigate what was true politically.  I am ashamed to say I made some bad voting decisions because I was influenced by some of my peers and influence peddlers that were not telling, or did not know the truth. 

     Our political system is not perfect, but it is probably the best in the world.  Our founding fathers felt the media would be the country’s watchdog and help the public make informed voting decisions.  Some of our media does this, and some have become lap dogs promoting the political agendas of the political elite. 

     We all have a personal responsibility to gets the facts and make informed voting decisions.  We must take this responsibility seriously for the sake of future generations.