Has this new era of secrecy, lies, and deceit in the government and
corporations started to infect our states, our cities, our communities,
our core values and beliefs? We cannot let our politicians and corporate
CEOs get away with lying to us. The president steals such slogans
as “Leave No Child Behind” and then cuts funding for schools
serving low-income children. The president told us he was against
nation-building, then he invaded Iraq using what we now know was faulty
intelligence of exaggerated threats. And while in his 2002 State of
the Union speech the president vowed to expand the public service
program Americorps by 50%, he recently presided over major cuts to
the program.

The
president is our leader, the figurehead of the country, a father
figure. Are the “children” supposed to follow his example?
Are we in an era of trickle-down immorality, like trickle-down economics?
The country sees their leader not telling the truth. These actions
send a message that you don’t have to mean what you say, that
you don’t have to care about other people, that you can do
whatever you have to do or say whatever you have to say to get ahead.
Is that the message we want to impart to our children? Is that the
culture we want to live in?

For
over 40 years, I have read lies about myself and have had people
take advantage of my position … but I have never before sued anybody.
Sometimes people send me unauthorized books that have been written
about me. I usually read the first page and if they can’t
get the first page right, I don’t read on. They usually don’t
do their own research or verify facts – they just perpetuate
the old lies. I remember one book said that I walked onto a soundstage
and fired everyone on the left side of the room, and other nonsensical
stories like that. All lies, but I didn’t sue because of the
publicity, the headache, the expenses, the time… but I guess now
I’ve reached a different place in my life. It just gets to
a point where you have to draw a line in the sand and say, like
the character Howard Beale in the movie Network, “I’m
as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

One
man’s hobby is to fly around spying on people … my hobby
is gardening, caring for my roses, watching things grow! When I
get upset, I go out and trim bushes. I have to constantly try to
remember to celebrate the miracle of life. It is that miracle that
we must all work every day to protect. We live in a country where
all people are supposed to have equal rights, but it is also a country
where we all have to be vigilant to protect those rights.

I
know that having lies told about me or having my name published
on a website is but a very small problem compared to the struggles
that so many people go through every day. I do not pretend to compare
my problems with the inequalities that exist on a larger scale,
but I do think that standing up against injustice in our own lives
is part of becoming active participants in our communities and our
country. There is too much injustice in the world on too many levels
affecting too many people to take it sitting down. So stand up and
fight!!