A recent Rolling Stone interview of Senator Obama (god willing, President-elect Obama), captured his sentiment about the acceptance of deceit which emanates from our highest offices. He is attributed with saying, "The level of irresponsibility that's taken place over the last eight years is breathtaking."

I was just railing about this disturbing phenomenon while BZ and I went up and down the aisles of Costco, after I read the ingredients of the Hershey's Chocolate sauce -- I'm not sure what propelled me to read the fine print...I wasn't even contemplating a purchase of the bottled brown liquid. Maybe what caught my eye were the words "Authentic Chocolate Flavor" -- "flavor" -- is that a euphemism for the actual stuff itself?

Indeed, the first ingredient was corn syrup and there was not a spec of chocolate in the whole concoction.

How, I wondered in the wide aisles of Costco, can it be alright to label a product as having "authentic flavor" when it does not actually contain that ingredient?

It is the same philosophy which encourages irresponsibility and liars and cheaters.

We see it now often in the marketplace. We see it in our politicians. Do we see it -- and accept it -- also in our loved ones or our business contacts?

Perhaps we have come to expect it and accept it. (Well, I haven't accepted it and hopefully never will....)

It is, I've said lately, because this environment of deceit is what we get from Washington on down. The message from D.C., from George W. Bush and his cronies and constituents, is that untruths -- otherwise known as lies -- are okay, a-okay, an accepted way to navigate this world.

Let's try to gather some hope that truth and honesty -- for the sake of truth and honesty and the simple beauty of that -- will begin to pervade our country again....For heaven's sake, if you haven't voted already, go out and Vote for Obama tomorrow and let's be hopeful for our future....