Truth is the higher standard

I had a very pleasant conversation with a writer friend who is new to my acquaintance and I can see right off the bat that I'm going to enjoy knowing her.  She is a spring chicken in comparison but I'll forgive her youth. And like me, has seen a lot of miles on a lot of trains. I suppose together we have seen just about every elephant there is.  I like her because she tells the truth and says what she sees.

It isn't common; that gift to change the visual into clear words that recreate the image.  I watch our political friends see the same things I see and they report that up is down and black is white.  I'm sure I saw the reverse but after a few minutes and a few sentences that run-on and therefore run from here to China, well, I'm not so sure that I believe my lyin' eyes.  This new friend, she watches and listens to things and then writes about them and what she saw and heard is what she writes.  It is a gift.

What is so current about it is that several hands full of Navy folks were helicoptered into a compound in Pakistan, got out and shot a very bad guy. Shot him in the chest and the head as the recount goes. Obviously this bad fella died on the spot and they loaded him up along with all his I-Pads and electronics and flew him off. No one wanted the body of this bad fella so they did what any very tough guys would do and that is eventually weight him up and toss him in the ocean. In a few hours he went to sleeping to Neptune's locker.

The guys who did this, these Navy guys, reported back that they had shot him in the chest and head, carried his body out, and dropped him in the ocean.   They tell the truth. It is their nature. They see things and hear things and then tell about them and it is what they see and hear. Exactly.  They are truthful reporters and you can bank on what they say as they are honorable people as are all people who tell the truth.

The truth story made its way back to our capital and was, again, reported out to others. This time it changed a bit as details got cleaned up, clarified and changed but the basic story was there:   Navy guys came into a compound, shot a bad fella in the head and chest, took his body, dropped it in the ocean and that is the end of it. Now some folks want to verify the truth told by people who tell the truth.

I wonder where this will end.  Not this questioning but the general assumption that a truthful person will be believed from the onset and that will be the end of it. No "ya' buts" or "assuming what you say is true" stuff but yes, he said it and it is true.  My new writer friend is a truth teller. One can spot that.a mile off.  The Navy guys all appear to rather die than lie.  If she heard the Navy guys and reported what they said and what she saw I would not have a second's doubt that it was right and in place.  When the President of the United States, who is getting this second hand, recounts the story I know that the details will eventually be fleshed out but the core of the story is true.  He isn't a writer or a reporter and not charged on a day in and day out basis with getting it exactly right from the get go.  He works his way into accuracy.

He is, however, President and that is a big deal in the veracity department.  He isn't writing a story on which others rely for facts and details but he must paint an accurate picture so that people just simply believe him.

The point being that that office of President of the United States should be the most honorable and righteous writer of the truth on this earth.  My writer friend wouldn't include a detail for "fun" or to write a clearer picture and her credibility as an observer would be out the window if she got too many details wrong or simply made them up.  The President got some of the details wrong not because the Navy guys failed to tell the truth but because the fellows who told the story to the president got it in drips and drabs and painted the picture as if by a "paint by number" set and only had finished with colors 1,2 and 3 with 6 more to go.

Less truthful people would say that we got the essence right; Pakistan, night, shots to the head and chest, burial at sea and leave it at that.  Very truthful people keep at it until it is all right and correct. You can tell the difference. I could tell the difference today with my friend.  I've seen these Navy guys in a past life, you can really "just tell" in an instant that what they say is what it is. I'm not keen on the political folks but I honor the office of the President and that is a higher standard or as high as I need.