2014-08-31 – Thursday evening my wife and I came home from having dinner at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant. There was a card stuck in our door. The guy who put it there was across the street. He called out my name. He knew my name, but I had never met him before.

He is a politician.

He was very friendly and he told us that he is running for alderman of our ward. He had a lot of very positive things to say about what he would like to see in the ward and in the city as a whole. Aldermen in Chicago are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but most aldermen in the city (most every official in the city) are democrats. The current alderman (alderwoman?—she introduced herself to me once as alderman) is a democrat. So we asked, “are you a republican?” He said that he was “fiscally conservative.”

He’s a republican.

But more importantly, he’s a politician, with a politician’s allergy for the truth. Too bad, because the things he was saying about what he’d like to do, if elected, sounded pretty good. Why the lie? It wasn’t even a big one. Of course, I know the reason. He knows that, if he says he’s a republican, most Chicagoans wouldn’t give him a chance.

It’s too bad.

Once upon a time, republicans would say they were fiscal conservatives and you could believe them. Sorta. I never was a republican, but I always thought it was good to have people in government who would be careful with the money. If a republican came to me, as this guy did, and told me that the democrats in city hall were spending on their cronies and sending nothing to the neighborhoods (which is true), I might be able to believe that he would want to stop this.

I might even be willing to vote for him in spite of his being a republican.

But lying is so rampant, these days, that it’s hard for me to trust him. Would he benefit my ward? Or would he just bring in new cronies? That’s what we have in Washington. Republicans aren’t fiscal conservatives anymore, in spite of what they say. They just want to spend on their buddies. Is this guy like the guys in Washington?

Don’t know. On the other hand, can I trust the incumbent? Don’t know that either. She’s been better than her predecessor who was a drag on the ward. But I see lots of action in our neighboring ward that’s not happening here. She could do better. But I have no idea if the guy who came to my door Thursday is the one.

It’s all about trust. So many people have given up on the truth. You don’t know who to trust. Everyday.

Except one day.

Diogenes Day. One day for truth. Diogenes day comes once a year: October 1. A month from tomorrow.

We have to start somewhere.

Diogenes Day is a new holiday. It began last year. Modestly. We need to spread the word. I need you to let all your friends know! Post this on your Facebook page! Tweet it! Whatever you think will work to get the word out. You can find information on the Diogenes Day celebration by clicking here:

Diogenes Day

Or by clicking the link that is always at the top of my blog page.

One day for truth.