Character Matters, Part II Truth

            As a lieutenant, I was assigned to a remote communications facility on top of a German mountain deep in a forest far from other U.S. forces. Due to the remoteness of the location, I rarely saw my superiors; consequently, they did not know me well. In fact, if I and my soldiers did our jobs well, I rarely interacted with my superiors. During this time period, the Army went through a drastic reduction in force due to the end of the “Cold War.” Senior rater comments on evaluations meant the difference between promotion and retention. Even anemic comments might effectively close the door to further promotion and future service. These salient facts on the course of my future were never far from my waking thoughts. Two battalion commanders came and went with almost no interaction and the associated average evaluations. Finally, a new commander arrived who made it a priority to get out and see his entire battalion, including my remote station. Thankfully, he felt like I was excelling in difficult circumstances. At the appropriate time, he wrote a stellar evaluation, one that was sure to secure future promotion; however, he committed one of the few unrecoverable mistakes one can make in the Army. He was caught up in a series of lies and forced to retire. That glowing evaluation never went forward. In the eyes of the Army, how could a liar be trusted to properly evaluate anything, especially the fitness of a subordinate officer? He inability to tell the truth about a personal matter spilled over into the rest of his life, casting a long shadow which threatened to engulf me. Fortunately, my career survived, but that glaring empty spot in my record remained with me for years. Oddly, I kept my copy of his evaluation and would occasionally drag it out and read it for reassurance. Somewhere, in my dusty personal military files, it still sits. The lesson it taught me remains vivid in my mind. Truth matters.

            Some philosophers and more than a few prognosticators enjoy talking about an emerging “post-truth” age. They base this on a growing relativism, especially among a few prominent politicians. Spend enough time around the water cooler at work or at a local coffee shop and you will likely hear, “Well everything’s relative.” People trot out this phrase when faced with inconvenient truths about an opinion they hold. It sounds urbane, and in their mind, shuts the door on further discussion. While some things are relative, I like buttermilk biscuits better than ordinary, truth does matter, and we discard an instance on truthfulness at our own peril and that of our country and culture. And in this upcoming election cycle truth matters.

             When we evaluate seekers of high office and public trust, we must consider their ability to properly handle facts, especially the inconvenient ones. It is not difficult to handle the positive facts of my life. I like sharing them. It is those darker moments of failure that challenge, and the darker the moment, the greater the challenge. How a candidate handles those moments reveals their character. We all fail, and we all make poor choices. When faced with that moment of truth, do we rise to the challenge, or do we dissemble and fail to own our mistake. All public office makes heavy demands upon the holder. We trust them to make weighty decisions on our behalf. Billions of dollars change hands at their direction. Some decisions imperil lives, civilian as well as military. We must trust our leaders to be forthcoming when evaluating matters of national interest. How they handle the truth in the rough and tumble period of a campaign opens a window into their character.

            If, in the furnace of an impassioned campaign, a candidate resorts to telling lies about an opponent or spreading innuendo then we know that they are not reliable. It does not matter what they say in support of our policy preferences, they are not trustworthy.  We cannot trust them and how can we expect others that they deal with to trust them. How can we expect other world leaders and the leaders in other branches of government to trust them? Dissembling reveals much more than it hides. When a candidate dissembles regarding some past problem, we know that not only are they inconsistent, they are unrepentant. Truth is paramount in creating trust. And trust is paramount in the proper working of government and international relations. If we cannot trust a candidate to tell the truth, then we cannot trust them to do the right thing with the responsibility of high office.