With all due respect, the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s recent slip—“…didn’t know the mike was on…”—sadly illustrates that sometimes high-profile people have two opposing truths, one to tell us and one to remain unspoken. How serendipitous that a mike left on captured a man’s true feelings that otherwise may have gone unheard. No one would have gotten upset, trusting fully that he felt differently, that they clearly knew his heart.

To some degree everyone has certain private feelings that, if known, might cause distress and shock to others. Imagine if suddenly all of our thoughts were projected to everyone around us. What secrets would they know?

So perhaps the good reverend is not, in this regard, so special; and that for most our deepest honesty stays hidden from public ears. It is said that to know a man’s truest self, watch him when he thinks no one is watching; or when no mike is left on.

Joseph Ciarlo
East Aurora