Liar!

"My word is my bond. Sound familiar? That is the way it once was."

Well here we are. At the bottom of the well. Our national discourse has devolved into something similar to playground hooliganism. And who is responsible for it? To start with, me, myself and I. I have not demanded better from our elected representatives. Nor the ones running for office. And now the language has gone from rude, to tawdry, to worse.

We seem to have a new four letter word in our lexicon. Okay - it is not new. It has been around forever. But the way it is used is somewhat new. It is thrown about with great abandon. And that word is "liar".

My word is my bond. Sound familiar? That is the way it once was. Today, we can go up to someone, look him or her squarely in the face, and call that person a liar. A non-truth teller. In other words, telling that person his or her word is no good. No longer their bond. To me, that is one of the worst things you can do to another person.

Not only has it become ingrained into the general lexicon of our population, it is used freely by a few of the candidates running for the highest office in our land. My fear is that is a person, politician or not, is called a liar often enough, that trait will come to fruition. Call it the negative Pygmalion Effect. Rather than striving for higher expectations and better performance in all of us, we will end up doing just the opposite. 

I really do hate that word, "liar". I can't remember (if ever) I called someone a liar to their face. If someone is not totally truthful, embellishes a story, or even tells a white lie, I give that person quite a bit of grace. Why? Because most of us do it from time to time. I do. I admit it. But to call someone a liar, saying they never tell the truth, is a tough charge indeed.

My plea to anyone on the campaign trail, please weigh your words carefully. Words mean things. And words can really hurt and impugn. The youth of America are watching. And learning. From all of us.