Afraid of the Light

I have been puzzled recently by essentially the same statement from two men who were legally blind. The first is from the newly inaugurated Governor of New York, David Paterson, and the second is from a television segment featuring someone who had surgery so that he could see again. Both said, "It is not the dark that scares me but the light." At first glance, the statement seems counter-intuitive to common sense, but then perhaps, upon a closer examination, it is not.

I am thinking specifically of today's political environment. All of the Presidential candidates have pledged to the public to be open and honest. Clinton has just released her schedule while serving the country as First Lady (with her tax return to follow soon); Obama has made a speech on the need for open, frank debate on the subject of race; and McCain has continued to call himself the "straight talking man," in spite of some evidence to the contrary, most notably his failure to admit that conversation in 2000 with John Kerry about being Vice President and his most recent cover up when he mixed up the Shia with the Suna. Of course, he said, he knew the difference between the two groups after eight trips to Iraq in spite of the fact Joe Lieberman had to correct him three times in his various statements.

With the rabid obsession of our twenty-four cable networks to top each other for ratings, every bit of minutiae is pored over and analyzed repeatedly. Perhaps it would be better to be kept in the dark about some small issues; the light can indeed be blinding and annoying to the brain of the average voter.