From the Desk of Terry Lynch


DATE: Feb. 3, 1999

FROM: Terry Lynch
POB 241035
Montgomery, AL 36124-1035

E-mail: TerryLynch@aol.com

Internet site: The Pyrotechnic Pen

Additional Information: Lynch Links


Letter to the Editor - For Immediate Release
Please publish and distribute copy of this letter to all US Senators!


SUBJECT: Finding of Facts Corrupts Nature of Truth
or President Is Truthful on Majority of Issues


Open Letter To US Senators

House managers seem to think that a search for the truth means asking the same question over and over again until you get the answer you want, then keeping it and disregarding all other testimony. Is not this badgering of the witness to obtain a selective view of the truth a deceitful process? Indeed, is not any absolute finding of fact a lie!


When making a scientific investigation, if you observe an event a thousand times, each time you make a measurement and determine an average value which includes what is called standard deviation, the amount above or below the mean which the value varies. There is no truth or lie, only the probability you will obtain a given answer when making a quantitative measure. In fact even in qualitative measure any finding of fact which disregards variation and incorrectly states truth as an absolute creates a lie!


How many times do GOP Clinton prosecutors need to hear Monica Lewinsky say, "No! The President didn't ask me to lie," before they believe her? Ms. Lewinsky has given the same answer 24 ñ x times. But just because upon occasion her story may have varied slightly, that ominous "x" of standard deviation, you don't discount the other two dozen times she testified to a given truth.


The same is true when questioning Vernon Jordan, Sidney Blumenthal or President Clinton. The truth they tell is not absolute, only approximate. Of course House managers and GOP lawyers unschooled in scientific methods are very uncomfortable with this idea. They want truth to be black or white, "yes" or "no," 100% pure gold. They want to hear what our legal system calls, "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god!"


Yet scientifically there is no such thing as an absolute truth which does not include variation in how events are observed, recorder or remembered. In real life events are always tainted with a degree of probability. Different perspectives, poor recollection, bad record keeping, poor investigation or even lying does not help matters any. And the existence of god, taken as a given when testifying under oath, taints the whole truth finding process, for there is no scientific proof god exists!


Because the measure of truth often equates to the honesty of a man, the dignity and respect of witnesses, it is important that we understand truth is not absolute. President Clinton may be honest 99% of the time. The fact he was deceitful 1% of the time regarding an extramarital affair does not make him a dishonest man, a poor role model or unsuitable for office. It is merely a fact of life that no man or woman is perfect. We ought to be glad that on the majority of issues President Clinton is an honest man!



Sincerely, Terry Lynch
Montgomery, AL
3 Feb. 1999


CC: US Senators, President Clinton, WWW.



Lynch is creator of the Help Bill website which is a non-partisan grassroots effort to express support for President Bill Clinton.






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