50% Correct

A 1915 banner from the women's suffrage movement contained the following statements:

Objection: Women are TOO PURE for the DIRTY POOL of politics.

Answer: If the Pool is dirty THE TIME HAS COME TO CLEAN IT. Women have Long Experience Cleaning up after Men.

While this answer was correct, the objection was also correct.

The objection, however, only addressed 50% of the problem and should have been rewritten, "Women and men are too pure for the dirty pool of politics."

Visiting Kfar Chabad many years ago, an elderly chassid asked me, "Mah atah lomed sham b'universitah? [What are you learning there in the university?] I told him that, among other things, I was taking political science classes at Tel Aviv University. The elderly chassid looked up at me with concern in his eyes and responded, "Sheker, atah lomed rak sheker." [Lies, you are only studying lies.]

I didn't argue with him. Today, I realize the truth in his words.

If the pool was dirty in 1915, what makes us think that it is clean now?