Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 26, 1995                   TAG: 9506260094
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TV TRIAL PUTS OUR HONESTY TO THE TEST

We are creating a generation of people who watch the trial on TV, but won't admit it. This can only lead to deceit and will turn millions of Americans into common liars.

I personally have lied on at least two occasions about watching the trial, and I know this leads to self-contempt.

A sophisticated, pragmatic society-at-large has decided to look down on people who watch the trial that has had a longer run than "I Love Lucy."

This the way it goes:

Helga is the efficient, loving mother of three. She is generally admired, and all is well until she tells her neighbor that she was breathless when O.J. tried on those gloves the first time and she feels sorry for Judge Ito.

Helga isn't at the monthly meeting of the garden club, and the neighbor says:

"Probably home watching that stupid trial. Seems to me a mother of three would have better things to do. Honestly."

Actually, Helga's oldest has an orthodontist's appointment, but the truth suffers in situations like this.

And the stern, awful truth is that the neighbor is a closet O.J. trial watcher. She secretly admires Marcia Clark, but if you mentioned the prosecutor's name in public, she would ask, "Marcia, who?"

In public she has said she'll be damned if she'll waste her time on a trial that takes all day to describe how shoes are made. But she caught every moment of the DNA testimony behind closed blinds.

This living with a lie will make a dishonest, morally dysfunctional woman of the neighbor. Her friends will see the signs - getting into the express lane at the supermarket with more than 12 items, or parking in a fire lane.

The truth is that she has been trying to get up enough nerve to call one of those talk shows. She would give an assumed name and say she thinks F. Lee Bailey is a jerk and a sorehead. She also wants to compliment Marcia on having enough nerve to change hairdos in mid-trial.

Meanwhile, Helga, who has been honest with her peers and herself will continue to be a devoted, guilt-free mother.

The garden club may blackball her, but her head won't be all mixed up.

She may be late with the meat loaf for supper occasionally, but you can blame that on that dumb California time.