I swear to tell the truth... Not!

For the last several days, I've been dealing with a major headache. I got the headache when I was listening to the discussions in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee (FSAC) meeting last week and got my first good look into the underbelly of our political system.

It's always been a long-standing joke that to be a politician, you had to lie. I always assumed that this was based upon the hundreds of thousands of broken campaign promises that lay cast to the side of the campaign trail. Unfortunately, my assumption was wrong.

It has always amazed me on the internet, that when you start to quote verifiable facts and statistics, there would always be a someone who would come out and tell you just how wrong you are, make some inappropriate innuendos, then tell you that they weren't going to “waste their time” in proving you wrong. Or else they will throw out some weird and unverifiable statistic that is obviously fake, hoping to win over a convert who is easily swayed by tripe.

I found out last Thursday, that the same type of behavior goes on inside our government as well. The main difference is, in our government, it is expected that people will stick to verifiable truths.

On Thursday, the FSAC was discussing a bill to require proof of US Citizenship or legal residency to receive financial aid/benefits from the state government. Now, I'm not going to accuse anybody of lying, however, to believe some of the things that were said... well... I'll let you judge...

One representative tossed out a figure stating that nearly 40% (if I heard him correctly) of the American troops that have died in Iraq were Hispanics. Of that amount, 25% were hispanics who were ILLEGALLY in this country. On the face of it, this is a startling revelation, that sounds first like a reasonable statistic when coming from a duly elected representative. Then, upon consideration, it sounds like what it really is, one of those weird and unverifiable statistics that is obviously fake.

The truth is, the US Military only accepts members who are legal residents or US Citizens. And having gone through the process myself, I can attest that the military does pay attention to your paperwork.

So was this statistic thrown out by the representative based upon bad information provided by a constituent? And repeated by the representative out of ignorance? Or was it a contrivance designed to convince people that those who cross our border illegally are true American Patriots?

Just a bit later, the same representative brought up the topic of Min Choi, a Korean citizen who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom while serving in the US Military. Min Choi was honored by being posthumously awarded US Citizenship at his funeral. Min Choi was a young man, who had immigrated legally to the United States with his family. He served our country with honor, and upon his death, he was properly awarded US Citizenship. To date, over 100 legal permanent residents of the United States have died in Iraq, and been awarded US Citizenship for their sacrifice to our country.

And our representative wants to dishonor our fallen soldier by saying that he was a criminal trespasser? Shame on you, Mr. Representative.

So was it a lie? Or was this representative simply ignorant of the truth? An old saying, which I usually ignore, but which seems appropriate here is, "It is better to appear a fool for remaining silent, than to open your mouth and prove your foolishness."

You can email Alan at alan@alanfernald.com twenty-four hours a day.