Paladino lying or exercising his free speech?

It seems one cannot go six inches these days without running into a politician who is lying about his or her military service. It’s a little like making one’s way around a fowl yard without stepping into chicken s**t.

The latest who has stepped into it is Crazy Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York, whose activities include e-mailing pictures of bestiality in action, who now has been caught in a lie about his very short time on active duty in the Army Reserve. The would-be gov’nor’s lies are not as outlandish as other claims from past politicians. They are nevertheless falsehoods concerning one’s time in the military. Many in the general public today look upon lying about military service and military decorations as a sacrilege.

Earlier this year Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced a bill that would make lying about military service punishable with up to six  months in prison. A bill called the “Stolen Valor Act” signed in 2005 by President George W. “Gee Dubya” Bush broadened a law already on  the books making it illegal to wear an unearned Medal of Honor to displaying any military decorations which were not awarded. That law was struck down by a federal judge in Denver this summer, the jurist ruling that the law violated “free speech.”

Now it must be said that exaggerating or even downright lying about military exploits are considered a time-honored tradition in some parts. Who hasn’t had a few adult beverages too many and began to tell war tales of Hue, or maybe it was Subic Bay? Well, just as there are different shades and colors of lying so too do different manners of barroom bulls**tting exist. It is when someone takes those tall tales beyond the saloon and start to insert the lies into some manner of their life does the problem start to fester.

Politics and getting ahead are just a couple of  reasons why people make such lies about themselves. I think the phenomenon of military lying is lighted well in the book “Phony Marine,” a novel by writer and legendary “News Hour” journalist Jim Lehrer. The book is about an everyman who finds a Silver Star and makes himself up an entire new life as a Marine hero.

Probably most of us, scholars and just curious folks not included, never think past “Why would someone do something like that?” when serious military lying is unearthed. That is because of the complex relationship between the civilian and military world in the United States, even more is that the case when one has never served in the military.

But those of us who have served also have our different takes on those who commit the lie of military service or exaggeration. The one particularly troubling case is of those who build their service into something falsely stellar. Why? Many reasons exist, some pathological. But mostly there is this to add to the why: Why? Why lie about your military service? Unless you did something wrong while serving or something of which you are seriously shamed by, why not be proud you served? You did something honorable serving. Why not just be content what that?

Otherwise, you might just resort to doing something really stupid, like exercising  your “free speech” kind of like Mr. Paladino and other pols seem to be doing these days.