I hear the word transparency used by most everyone for almost any reason. The phrase “talking out of both sides of your mouth” frequently comes to mind. The definition I use is “free from pretense or deceit.”

To date the best quote I’ve found to characterize how our country is using the word transparency is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “Behind the ostensible [open to view] government sits enthroned [assigned a supreme value] and invisible [non-transparent] government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.” I know it’s frightening. Please, read it again.

Has transparency become a word without substance? Is it one of those words that has mutated to the degree that it no longer conveys its message in a conversation? Is it mere embellishment?

I’m probably off base here, but I feel the public, in general, has taken on this mutated use of transparency. The segregation of society into opposing groups has eliminated transparent dialogue. I heard a psychologist say that humans are basically like sheep, easily managed. I don’t baaaaaalieve it.

When a person can no longer decipher what’s being said or what it means, then aren’t we just sheep at someone else’s mercy? Is this the new manner by which we will now conduct democracy? Do you like being treated like sheep and being only useful as sacrifices?

Even Democratic political consultant Peter Fenn is quoted as saying: “The basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency.” Hmmmmmm, wonder what he meant?

It’s not clear what this latest political movement will produce. I can’t find a strong moral basis that assures the people of transparency. It’s just too lucrative to be non-transparent. Why are pretending and cheating so attractive? Are we lost sheep in a den of wolves?