Honesty Is Not the Same as Transparency
Fri., May 22, 2026
Paul Oestreicher
Honesty is an ethical duty; openness is a matter of judgment. That distinction matters in politics, business and daily life. It is even more crucial in government, where leaders handle private, sensitive or consequential information.

In 1976, Canada spent millions to honor the U.S. on its 200th birthday. The recent actions of the U.S. government make a repeat of that highly unlikely for the upcoming 250th birthday celebration.
Every day, Marco Rubio is forced to walk a delicate public relations line where he unhesitatingly supports Donald Trump’s policies while not encouraging the President's obnoxious personal peccadilloes.
Humor is a strength of democracy. It punctures pomposity and invites self-correction. Fear narrows; comedy opens. Today, the far right isn’t trying to out-joke comedy—it’s trying to silence it through economic, political, and legal pressure.



