JESS AND IMA ON HONESTY

JESS: Hey, Ima, I’ve been noticing that the word “honesty” isn’t being spoken of much lately.

IMA: No? I hadn’t paid much attention.

JESS: Well, in our run up to the last election, and ever since then, I haven’t heard the candidates speak about honesty or integrity in themselves, or their opponents. And since the last election no one seems to be using that term, not even the ‘TV talkers’. I wonder why?

IMA: Do you think that honesty is less important these days than it used to be? I remember, as a child, being told that I should be honest and truthful; that “honesty was the best policy”; of course that was before there was such a thing as “alternative truths”.

JESS: Yep, honesty was so important a long time ago that the country even lied about how important it was.

IMA: What are you talking about, Jess?

JESS: Don’t you remember the lies told about Abraham Lincoln and the penny, and George Washington and the cherry tree? They were part of our history lessons…only to learn later in life that because somebody thought that honesty was such a great character asset it was necessary to lie about how “honest” those two presidents were.

IMA: Oh, yes, I remember when the true stories were reported. And I remember, too, that honesty had lost some respect when Jimmy Carter was vilified for admitting “honestly” about ‘lusting in his heart’.

JESS: Yeah! Well, even though today “honesty” may have lost its place in terms of positive character traits, maybe one day it will be important enough again so that our current politicos and ‘importants’ will have lies told about them too.