by Marvina Randle

Created on: December 17, 2008

A transparent government is a government that tells the truth and provides public access to that truth. However, can we handle the truth, or is it too scary? Some American's would move to another country if they knew the truth about the actions of our government over the past 100 years. Many prefer to stay sheltered in their safe cocoon believing that America is the force of all that is good and therefore authorized to do whatever it wants, wherever it wants to do it, to whom ever it wants to do it to. These Americans believe we have the right to protect our business interests anywhere in the world because we are Americans. Anyone who questions our intentions, authority, or ability to use whatever means, including our military or covert actions, to protect those assets, is labeled as wrong or evil.

Now we have a president elect who tells us he will tell us the truth, whether we want to hear it or not. This is a good thing and should be practiced every day in office. You cannot fix a problem if you don't know or are unwilling at admit what caused it, so telling the truth would be the best place to start. The next decision becomes how much "truth" does he tell us?

Obama said he was going forward rather than focusing on the past. This policy does little to educate about the mistakes that brought about our current situation. Common sense dictates an examination of the corporate greed and government corruption that allowed profit margins to take priority over society's needs. Obama must prevent further decline in our financial markets, stop the increasing rate of foreclosures, the decline in home values, and focus on the need to put American's back to work rebuilding the infrastructure and investing in green energy. Good ideas, but how do they "fix" the real problem of greed and corruption?

Unless educated about the real reason we are in this "crisis" we will continue allowing leaders to scare us into keeping corporate interests ahead of our own and no real change will reach America's "back streets." America needs "shocked into action" by truth. Therefore, Obama should have a team investigating the criminal behavior that culminated into the current crisis. He must be willing to prosecute any violator, no matter his position or political party to re-establish American rule of law and his first speech, as president, should go like this:

"I want to thank all Americans for the honor of serving as your 44th president. This is our journey, our chance to work together to

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