Just once, I'd love to see...

A politician, with media present, say "I don't know".
A politician say "That isn't any business of government"
A professional or college athlete, or coach, correct a bad call that went in their favor
A commercial that says "This isn't the best product, but it's priced lower and it will do the job"

Honesty. My experience has been that most people are quite honest, and modest about their abilities and accomplishments. Most of us don't mind admitting that we have faults, and don't have all the answers, or even that we haven't studied a question enough to have a solid opinion. I encounter that sort of honesty on a daily basis. I suspect you do too.

For some odd reason, though, put a person in a position of some responsibility, especially with media coverage, and honesty is relegated to a back shelf, if not hidden completely. The admissions I listed above are often the only honest reply in that context... the only truthful thing that can be said, but we don't hear them, and we should. We should because those people, in those situations, should be able to be trusted to tell the unvarnished truth.

Politicians serve at our discretion. They make promises to us in order to get our votes. We all know that they can't understand everything, haven't studied all issues thoroughly, and that they, like us, make mistakes. "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable, honest answer, but, instead, we get diverting and vague gibberish with which we're expected to form an impression. Their hope is that we'll assume that what we didn't hear is really what we wanted to hear, and that the politician will have offended nobody.

The answer "That isn't any business of government" is the only answer that can keep government from intruding into every minute aspect of our lives. Each of us, even the most socialistic of us, could list areas that are just not government's business, but the statement is never issued from those in office or seeking office. The lack of that position leads directly to government involvement in everything, which sanctions nothing short of a massive, overbearing, intrusive, empirical government. That is the direction we've been moving in for many decades, despite our nation being founded with the opposite intention.

Sports are games... recreation... fun, but we've allowed ourselves to take them so seriously that we're willing to accept a shocking level of dishonesty from those who provide the entertainment. Fans accept that players are free to foul, if they can get away with it. Getting caught seems to be the only downside to fouls. Coaches teach players how to foul without getting caught... wait until the official is distracted, or keep your foul out of his line of sight. Just today, I listened as a former coach-now commentator criticized a football defender for interfering with a receiver too late... after the official's attention was on them. I sometimes wonder how many points/game can be attributed to skilled sneakiness. In basketball, it's also all too obvious that "star" players get special treatment from officials.

College sports is particularly disgracefully dishonest. We watch young athletes who are supposedly students seeking an education. Yeah, you bet. Some of them are, but many are not. Sure, they'll get a degree, with all the extra help they need to keep their eligibility, but violations of even the loose code of the NCAA are common. Most fans could care less, if it results in winning records. Most of the big sports universities are public universities, meaning they're subsidized with our tax money, through government, based on the idea that educating young people will benefit all of us. Athletic competition is a healthy adjunct to formal learning... a nice break from the books, so to speak, but athletic competition in our colleges has grown to corrupting levels. While non-athletes strive to get through limited entrance guidelines, athletes are actively recruited. How many degrees are taken out of reach to non-athletes, in favor of athletes who may never make any use of whatever they learned in classes? In a context we consider a learning environment, that shapes young minds, what distorted, dishonest lessons do college sports add to the whole student body?

I'm a fan of private enterprise. My experiences with product and service suppliers have been almost all positive. I just had a chair seat replaced, after 10 years, under a lifetime warranty, and at great expense to the manufacturer. Whenever I've complained to a company, I've almost always gotten a fair response. However, when a perfectly honest company puts themselves into the hands of their marketing department plus an ad agency, all that honesty seems to vanish... especially on TV commercials. Who do they think they are fooling? Perhaps there are some really unbright folks out there, camped out on their couches, enthralled by claims of "ultimate", "extreme", and "fabulous", but are there enough gullible dummies who actually have income, to justify extremely inflated product and service claims?

I happen to be in a low-income status. I look for ways to save money without sacrificing too much utility, beauty, or convenience. Of course, there are many top-end products I lust for, but there are a lot of second-rate, cheaper products that will do nicely. We all make such choices... saving here, splurging there... picking and choosing among a tremendous variety of products. To watch TV commercials and print ads, though, one would think that all products being advertised are the best possible, regardless of price.

I'm sick of car commercials that show cars dashing and roaring quickly, so you have to work to see how bland their styling is. I'm sick of sappy slow-motion views of women walking in high heels, advertising who knows what.. I'm sick of booze commercials that imply that drinking one brand will make you popular and drive those of the opposite sex toward you. I'm sick of cleaning product commercials with silly women who seem to really believe that having an immaculate toilet bowl is almost orgasmic.

Sure, I can "read through" such commercials, or ignore them, but why do we have to have such ignorant claims in the first place? They're not just silly; they're deceptive and irresponsible. Advertisers... if you're determined to spend millions putting your wares in front of us, how about using that money to inform and educate us in a way that will allow us to make choices that won't disappoint us?

I'm convinced that most people are still quite honest, but there are public influences that tend to make us make exceptions... that tell us that dishonesty is acceptable and creates advantage. It's wrong and we CAN change it, by refusing to accept it. If we complain enough about it, rather than accepting such exceptions, it WILL stop.