Urban Thought Collective

I’ve been thinking about truth lately. Has it always been so elusive? Over the past two days, our good war man, General Petraeus, has testified before Congress with regard to the current state of the Iraq War. If the real point of the hearings was to obtain that pesky “truth,” then the proceedings would have lasted about ten minutes. Why is so much time spent on massaging, molding and reshaping the plain truth? Have Americans become so accustomed to sugarcoating, that lacing words with a hint of truth is more palatable than spitting out the real deal?

I would have loved to hear the General speak plainly (without the millions of visual aids) and clearly into the mic:

“Things are awful and none of our objectives are being met. There is no likelihood that the situation will get any better, and we simply do not have the solution to fix this mess. Our amazing troops and the everyday citizens of Iraq are needlessly being killed, harmed and destroyed by this war. Let’s get out.”

There. Simple. See how good truth feels? It’s not pretty, but it’s a starting point to opening dialogue on how to heal a scar that has been oozing far too long. At least with truth, you can move forward in reality, and not waste more lives (countless), money (trillions!), and time (five years and counting) on something that is clearly impossible to “win.”

I really wanted to like Hillary Clinton. I mean, she is a brilliant woman. Driven, focused, well educated and she’s got guts. I always felt bad for her. She was humiliated on an international scale by her whore of a husband many, many times. This was her turn to step out of his shadow and do something wonderful and meaningful. Yet, throughout her ever changing campaign she has proven to be nothing more than an opportunistic fake. Now this. “Snipergate” has really gotten under my skin and turned my stomach.

How the hell do you blame a boldface lie on your staff? How do you get in front of millions and REPEATEDLY tell the same lie over and over? You’re not even a Bush! No excuse. Getting shot at is not something you misremember, misstate or play with. She wants to paint Obama as nothing more than a great orator. At least his speeches are sprinkled with a healthy dose of tasty truth. Try some, Hillary. A spoonful a day helps it go down nice and easy.

Ellene Miles has worked as an entertainment publicist for more than 6 years. Her collection of rants will be featured exclusively on UTC for the good of the people.