Hillary Clinton misspoke, she says, about the sniper threat when she visited Bosnia in 1996 – twelve years ago. Mrs. Clinton said that it was a rare thing for her to misspeak, telling her listeners on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: “… Last week, for the first time in 12 years or so, I misspoke.”
Hillary Clinton misspoke – or did she? Might there be a more appropriate word than “misspoke”? Might you who are interested in character building have chosen to call it by something else? Let’s look briefly at her statement and the occasion about which she grossly “misspoke”.
Mrs. Clinton said, in a prepared speech, that she recalled landing at the Bosnia airport “under sniper fire”. Quoting Mrs. Clinton, “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
Instead of an airport ceremony, said Hillary Clinton, they ran. However, video footage of the visit shows an obviously relaxed Clinton leaving her plane, walking slowly as she talks and smiles with those around her. She participates in that ceremony at the airport, with several cameras running, and a large, boom mike held near her head. She greets, unperturbed, the waiting dignitaries. She stops to talk to an 8-year old girl. She smiles at the girl, and takes an envelope from her. Tranquilly, Hillary opens the envelope and looks at the poem it contains. She hugs the child, and they exchange calm kisses. Chelsea Clinton is also in no hurry as she bends, smiles, and speaks to the child.
The difference between Mrs. Clinton’s account and reality, you see, is like the difference between night and day. She could not have “remembered” coming under sniper fire if it never happened. She could not have remembered running for her life when she had, instead, participated in a tranquil, happy ceremony. Nevertheless, Clinton says she “misspoke” and her campaign managers say that she “said it slightly differently” in her most recent description of the event.
When you tell the truth “slightly differently” than it was, it is no longer the truth. It is a LIE.
Hillary Clinton did not misspeak. She did not make a mistake. It was not a “minor blip” as she later termed it. Mrs. Clinton clearly wanted to deceive us by embellishing the trip to Bosnia. She wanted to convince us that such a dangerous foreign situation qualified her further to become U.S. President. She wrote the words into her prepared speech, and did not forget the truth when she stood at the podium.
Hillary Clinton lied – on purpose.
Hillary Clinton has not learned, and does not practice, what even a small child can learn and practice. She has not learned the meaning of honesty. She has not learned to practice honesty consistently.
Honesty is not bending the truth to your own purposes; not telling something slightly differently than what you know happened; not calling such an action misspeaking. In the children’s book entitled Jeremy Rabbit’s Honesty Pie (© 2003), honesty is defined this way: “Honesty is knowing the truth, and always doing the truth, even when nobody is watching you.” The Rabbit Grandmother in the book tells her grandson, “Honest rabbits … refuse to do anything that will make someone else think something is so when it really is not so.”
Hillary Clinton would do well to read that book on honesty – to learn to act with authentic and complete honesty. Instead, she lies, and then responds to media questions with, “Lighten up, guys.”
Hillary Clinton is telling the world that honesty is unimportant. On that belief, she and I differ utterly.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?